Role of pre-modern traditional healing, superstition and witchcraft

There are few fields in healthcare that elicit such controversy as traditional healthcare. The various negative and opposing reactions on the promulgation of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act (22 of 2007) and the statutory recognition of the traditional health practitioners as full partners of South Africa's future healthcare establishment, are therefore not an unexpected surprise. The introduction of the traditional healer as a recognized health practitioner to the general public of South Africa was thoroughly politically planned, especially since 1994. Political rhetoric about traditional healers and their "unique medicine" as victims of colonial powers, the apartheid regime and the Western/European health fraternity, became standard remarks in speeches, articles and other publications. It is clear that no thorough study on this matter has been conducted. There is a dire need for an in-depth study on the Act and the role of traditional healers in the healthcare sector and given the healthcare needs of South Africans. The book embarks on a step-by-step analysis and interpretation of the Act's various definitions, descriptions and clauses.