New breed of traditional healers has sharp eye on marketing
May 15, 2008
By SLINDILE KHANYILE
Durban - A civil engineer, a former journalist and metro policeman, an ex-truck driver, whites and Indians ... these are some of the new generation of entrepreneurs in the traditional medicines sector in South Africa today, which is worth more than R3 billion.
The industry's face appears to be changing and is becoming somewhat sophisticated. Some old prerequisites do not apply any more. Gone are the days when you had to be a qualified sangoma or inyanga (traditional healer) before customers could consider you and your herbs to be credible.
Relying on "luck" portions to attract customers is also no longer enough. Herb owners have realised the power of advertising in mainstream media.
Their marketing budgets range between R10 000 and R25 000 a month, with an average of one newspaper and one radio advert a week.
The mixtures are available at retail pharmacies.
There is a particular emphasis on the packaging of the products. Suppliers have shifted from using plain bottles with no labels to glossy bottles that sometimes even name the ingredients.
Two factors drive the mushrooming of these businesses: the high infection rate of HIV/Aids and the wish to enhance sexual performance.
Most of the businesses specialise in manufacturing mixtures that improve the quality of the customer's sex life; as well as immune boosters, which, they claim, help improve the patient's CD4 blood count, which measures immunity.
Ubhejane, a mixture owned by Zeblon Gwala, a former truck driver, is probably the most popular. Gwala's potion, which restricts a patient from using antiretroviral drugs, has received national attention and even made it onto the list of debate topics in the national assembly.
It has been criticised by the Treatment Action Campaign and the Democratic Alliance, but has been defended by health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. It has been tested for side effects and is still undergoing more tests.
Gwala has not divulged the 83 ingredients, which, he says, were revealed to him in a dream.
Victor Ndlovu, the founder of the uMakhonya immune booster, says the traditional medicine business has had to evolve with times.
A former journalist and metro cop, Ndlovu started his business in 2006, when he realised he was capable of helping sick people. He learnt about plants when he was a young boy from his grandfather, who was a traditional healer. But he emphasises that he is not a traditional healer. He is, in fact, a born-again Christian.
"Traditional healers and izangoma relied on luck portions to attract customers, and they are guided by spiritual powers and bones on what herbs they should dispense," says Ndlovu.
"But I don't rely on those powers. I have to understand how to mix herbs, the right dosage and procedures that will make the mixture have a long shelf life, because we don't sell directly to customers but we supply retail pharmacies."
Ndlovu says packaging is an innovative way to make the product suitable for everyone.
"The Chinese have done that for years. They package a herb into tea so that it suits everyone on the market. Even people who frown upon using traditional medicine are comfortable drinking it when they are convinced that it is tea."
Ndlovu has had his mixture tested for side effects and has registered it with the Medicines Control Council.
Musa Memela is a full-time civil engineer and a part-time healer. He launched his immune booster, Gambu, last year. The mixture specialises in assisting people infected with HIV. "But we do not cure HIV and some people are disappointed when we tell them that, because they are looking for a cure," says Memela. "Our product helps to cure other illnesses that are related to the virus."
Some of the herbs are packaged in capsule form. The prices for a package range from R80 to R200.
Explaining why traditional healers spend so much on advertising, Thulani Zondo, the Soweto area manager of Vuselela Herbal Pharmaceuticals, says it is about survival: "This is my livelihood and I can't just rely on word of mouth."
Nceba Gqaleni, a professor for indigenous health system research at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Department of Science and Technology/ National Research Foundation, says the advertising phenomenon is not new. But it has been taken to the next level.
"We have always had people advertising their herbs on the road," says Gqaleni. "It's an easy industry to enter because it is not regulated. It will probably change once it is regulated."
Gqaleni does not think the quality of the products is compromised. But he concedes that it is difficult to tell who is a genuine healer and who is not.
"The industry is very big. There are more traditional healers than medical doctors."
Reports earlier this year said that there were 200 000 traditional healers in the country and that 133 000 households relied on the sector. It has about 26 million customers.
The Traditional Health Practitioners Act was assented to and signed by the president at the beginning of the year.
The department of health is developing regulations to govern the act, which gives traditional healers legal recognition of their work as health practitioners.
Plans are under way to establish an interim traditional healers' council, which will serve as the regulator for the industry, addressing such issues as quality control, training and accreditation.
Another striking claim that owners make about their mixtures and capsules is that each one is able to treat at least 10 illnesses.
Vinesh Maharaj, the research group leader of bioprospecting at the CSIR, says the research body has never tested any of the products mentioned, but it is scientifically possible to treat a number of conditions with one mixture.
"Natural products are known to have multiple effects and could be used to treat various ailments, especially if several plants are used in a mixture," says Maharaj.
"Aspirin, derived from a natural product, is well known for its various biological effects."
Maharaj says the CSIR has undertaken research to validate claims of traditional healers in areas such as HIV, malaria, asthma, allergies, inflammation and arthritis. The researchers have leads in various stages of development.
Sazi Mhlongo, the deputy chairman of the National Professional Traditional Healers' Association, has raised concerns about the new breed of traditional healers.
He says his group is concerned because some healers lack proper knowledge of plants. "This is killing our business. People don't consult [qualified traditional healers] any more because the herbs are accessible at supermarkets."
Mhlongo says his association is not questioning the authenticity of the new generation. But he adds that traditional healing is specialised, and that anybody dispensing traditional medicine has to be qualified to do so.
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