How To Check If A Traditional Healer Is Registered

There are numerous traditional healers scattered across South Africa. Approximately, the number of traditional healers across the country exceeds 1800,000. This post specifically takes a look at how to check if a traditional healer is registered in South Africa or not. More importantly, get to know the requirements involved in becoming a certified traditional healer in South Africa.

About A Traditional Healer

In most African communities, traditional medicines play an important health care role. The reasons why many people prefer traditional healing over conventional therapy is that, it is:

Easily Accessible
Readily Available
Quite Affordable
Spiritually, Religiously And Sociologically Valuable

Herbal medicines utilizing varied parts of plants represent close to 80% of the traditional medicines. But then, water, oils, minerals and animal parts are utilized alone or mixed with plant parts.

Who Is A Traditional Healer?

A traditional healer is someone who did not necessarily acquire any formal medical training, but is considered as being capable of rendering health care using animal, plant and mineral substances and certain other proficiencies based on social, cultural and religious background knowledge.

Traditional Health Practitioners Act

In South Africa, there are laws that regulate how medical practices are to be carried out by medical practitioners and traditional healers.

What Is The Traditional Health Practitioner Act In South Africa?

Starting Time

30th April 2008, Sections 7, 10, 11(3), 12 to 15, 47, 48 and 50 (Gazette 31020 of 30 April 2008).
1st May 2014, Sections 4 to 6, 8, 9, 16 to 46, 49 and 51 (Gazette 37600 of 2 May 2014).
1st October 2018, Sections 1, 2, 3, 11(1) and 11(2) (Gazette 41945 of 28 September 2018).

The Traditional Health Practitioners Act 22 of 2007 proposes:

to lay down the Interim Traditional Health Practitioners Council of South Africa;
to render for a regulative framework to guarantee the efficacity, safety and quality of traditional health care services;
to provide for the management and control over the registration, training and conduct of practitioners, students and specified categories in the traditional health practitioners profession; and
to provide for matters connected with that.

How To Check If A Traditional Healer Is Registered

Following the establishment of the Traditional Health Practitioners Council, many had had the notion that, one could figure out the list of traditional healers who are registered in South Africa however, per the Traditional Healers Association, despite the fact that the council was founded in 2013, no traditional practitioner had been officially registered.

On the other hand, there are active Traditional Healers Associations, and the African National Healers Association is a major association where you can find registered traditional healers in South Africa. To find an information about any of their registered traditional healers, go to their website for that.