The Organisation and Infrastructure of the African Traditional Healing System: Reflections from a Sub-District of South Africa1

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgements Prof HCJ van Rensburg (Centre for Health Systems Research & Development, University of the Free State) Prof E Pretorius (Faculty of Humanities, University of the Free State) Prof C Ngwena (Department of Constitutional Law and Philosophy of Law, University of the Free State) Department of Health (Free State and Eastern Cape provinces) Amatole District Municipality and Buffalo City Local Municipality (Eastern Cape Province) Eastern Cape Traditional Health Practitioners Programme Andrew Mellon Foundation (funding) University of the Free State Research Ethics Committee Notes 1. This article is based on a qualitative study conducted for the purpose of a doctoral thesis entitled 'The role of practitioners of traditional medicine in the treatment, care and support of people living with HIV/AIDS'. 2. Mpumalanga, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, North West and Gauteng provinces (Richter Citation2003). 3. The Portfolio Committee on Health, in its recommendations to Parliament, proposed that four categories of traditional healers be recognised and overseen by the Interim Council for Traditional Healers, namely diviners, herbalists, traditional surgeons (conduct male circumcisions) and traditional birth attendants. 4. Understanding a particular and specific event or case within its own context (Babbie & Mouton Citation2001). 5. Individual interview conducted with the Eastern Cape traditional health practitioners' coordinator. 6. At the time of data collection, the Traditional Health Practitioners Bill had not yet been enacted. Hence, reference to the Bill and not the Act. 7. Four categories of traditional health practitioners are officially recognised in South Africa, namely diviners, herbalists, traditional surgeons and traditional birth attendants. Spiritual healers are, as yet, not officially recognised as traditional health practitioners.