OVER 1 100 faith healers with others still coming in have heeded to the directive of registering with the Traditional Medical Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe (TMPCZ), HealthTimes has learned.
By Kuda Pembere
In March, the TMPCZ issued a notice ordering the registration of faith healers in order to obtain practicing licenses. This comes on the back of a directive by the Ministry of Health and Child Care that all faith healers and herbalists from both churches and traditional religion should be bound by a set of regulations in line with the Traditional Medical Practitioners Act. This includes pastors, bishops and prophets who practice faith healing.
In an interview, the TMPCZ Acting Registrar Mr Givemore Kanda said the registration exercise has been going on smoothly with the Council being overwhelmed by churches who want to register.
He said at recent board meeting, they learned that over 1 100 registered with the numbers coming from the national office and three provinces. Of these 1 100, there were over 350 churches. Mr Kanda said the numbers are still coming in.
“It is a council under the Ministry of health and Child Care. We derive our constitution, from an Act of Parilament that is the Traditional Medical Practitioners Act 27:14.
“I can safely say the exercise was good because we have seen a lot of practitioners coming to our offices. Not only in Harare but to provincial inspectors dotted across the country.
“It is very massive and we are encouraging them to come cannot specifically give an exact number because they are always coming each day.
“Even today, we have registered more than 20. And it depends again on our different provinces. It is a process but what I can simply say is they are coming in a big numbers,” he said.
He explained that people who come for the first time are registered and are supposed to renew their practicing licenses every year.
“After registering them, we give them what we call practicing licenses. These practicing licenses are renewed every year. We would want to follow up on the practitioner to check if they are doing things according to the law. Churches must not refuse to be registered because even the Bible says in Romans 13 vs 1 which says that believers must submit to the authorities. It has been there.
“It is an ongoing process but as we speak, it happens every day. As we speak you can see people registering. Our phones are inundated every time from people all over the country. There are people from Bulawayo expressing interest to register,” Mr Kanda said.
Mr Kanda said traditional faith healers, apostolic faith healers and churches play an important role in communities as they close the long distance challenges villages face.
“Traditional medicine plays an important role on community level. When you look at villages, traditional areas, you will find a number of them who help people because their primary responsibility is to help people at community level before they go to the hospital or referral professional clinics. In short the sangomas are found in every village, and this is known by the chiefs and headmen.
“The traditional leaders also know about the Christian faith healers such as the prophets and churches in their communities. So the community members consult with the above mentioned before going to the hospitals or clinics because of long distances and poor road networks. They play an important role in our communities and in the country.
He also said their consultation fees are also not as high as those found at health facilities.
“If we look at their consultation fees, they are not expensive compared to the hospitals as well as the items they use. With African traditional faith healers, they use herbs, if they are apostolic faith healers, they use God’s healing power, and give water, lemons. In my view, these people help others a lot especially these days when money is hard to come by and there is need to get foreign currency. Others are told to return with ‘thanksgiving’ upon getting healed,” Mr Kanda said.
Mr Kanda said they advise some medical complications to be timeously referred to trained health personnel.
“Traditional medicine and western medicine work hand in glove as in every district there are sangomas, apostolic sect healers especially now that we are advising they use vital signs monitors for temperature, blood pressure. If the vitals are abnormal, they are supposed to refer to the hospital or clinic in time.
“Also if they see a baby in breach upon delivery, they refer to the hospital for operation. We are promoting cordiality so that we will have items used at health facilities,” he said.
Speaking on bogus faith healers, Mr Kanda said they should be incarcerated.
“Bogus faith healers must be arrested. We are guided by the TMPC Act 27:14 which states that fake faith healers and the tsikamutandas must be arrested. What I want to say is that we recommend people visit hospitals to be treated mental health disorders.
“On the other hand, we must also acknowledge there are cases where people visit hospitals for mental health treatments, and they do not work. Yet when they consult the sangomas, it works. There are cases like avenging spirits which cannot be treated at the Hospitals,” he said.
