Nhau News Online News that is accurate, reliable, trustworthy!!
16 Sep 2020
Staff reporter
Untested and risky herbal solutions have become the order of the day for the poor, who are often ripped off by backyard and unlicensed “medical” practitioners out to get a quick buck.
Since health workers began to withhold their labour several months ago, the poor do not have access to health, mothers are giving birth in hallways at hospitals while basic treatment is now a luxury.
Clinics and hospitals have not functioned properly for most of this year – forcing them to resort to traditional healers and self-styled prophets.
To make matters worse, the few clinics and hospitals that are operational have no medication while nurses and doctors return to work in dribs and drabs.
This has caused business for traditional healers and prophets to boom as poverty stricken Zimbabweans cannot afford the doctors’ consultation fee of at least US$20.
And since public pharmacies are also always without important medication, it is the private pharmacies that are making a killing.
Tichaona Mburu, a clinical health practitioner in Harare, said most public hospitals and council clinics have no medicines but those that can afford just go to their doctors, private hospitals and pharmacies.
“People are dying in homes and being quietly buried. Most people who used to shun traditional medicines saying they were satanic are actually using untested herbal solutions and resorting to Madzibaba and self-styled prophets.”
Mburu said those with a little money take advantage of corrupt pharmacists to get prescription drugs even without consulting doctors.
Zimbabwe National Practitioners Association (ZINIPA) president Sekuru Friday Chisanyu said patients seeking their services increased after workers in the health sector downed tools.
He said the main reason they are getting more clients is that their medication is cheap and locally available while their charges are negotiable.
“Most people now turn to us shunning hospitals and other medical institutions that are charging exorbitant prices for their services which are not affordable to the general public.
“Our consultation fees and medical charges are negotiable and affordable hence patients now prefer traditional medication which also has no side effects,” he said.
However, what is more absurd is Government’s licensing of traditional healers to cure Covid-19.
It paints a picture of both a desperate Government and population.
Sekuru Chisanyu lauded Government for initiating the community engagement programme where they are now empowered to treat Covid-19 patients.
“Government gave us thermometers to test temperatures as well as phones to update the Ministry of Health about our work.”
Traditional healers are regulated under Zimbabwe’s 1981 Traditional Medical Practitioners Act. An estimated 84 percent of Zimbabweans profess to be Christians, but more than 80 percent of Zimbabweans consult traditional healers, according to the Parliament’s 2010 health committee report.
Meanwhile, more people are flooding masowe and other church shrines seeking healing. Statistics show that prophets have become more popular in Zimbabwe than any other time in the country.
The bottom line is that it never rains but pours for the poor.
On the other hand, the rich and the politically connected continue to live pretty. They have their own Covid-19 centres, doctors and affluent people’s pharmacies.
The most affluent and well-heeled even seek medication overseas where the likes of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga spent several months while ZANU PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo is believed to be India where he has been for several months now.
In the end, it is the poor that suffer the most.
