Ministry seeks ban of traditional healers' ads

Traditional healers may soon be banned from placing service advertisement on TV, radio and newspapers because it is alleged that they mislead patients into abandoning certified doctor recommendations and prescriptions.

The Health and Social Welfare ministry says it is already in talks with the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) for the purpose.

The ministry holds that all advertisements by traditional healers are illegal and not allowed even if they may have actually cured the claimed diseases.

Despite being against the law, the ministry said the traditional healers have continued to advertise prompting the ministry to seek to ban such advertisements, permanently.

Speaking to journalists at a workshop on diabetes recently in Dar es Salaam, an officer from the ministry, Shadrack Buswelu, said programmes that publicise traditional healers are confusing and misleading to the public and must be stopped.

“It’s illegal for any traditional healer to advertise on television or in any other mass media about their medicines or treatment,” he warned.

In an interview with The Guardian, National Coordinator for the Association of Traditional Medicines Bonaventura Mwalongo, confirmed that the Traditional medicine Act of 2002 bars traditional healers are from advertising on mass media.

He said the healers registered with the association are only allowed to put up physical signs such as banners, posters or related advertisement options such as billboards.

Mwalongo said the association is collaborating with security organs to report to police traditional healers contravening the law and misleading the public, occasioning serious effects, including deaths to patients abandoning or mixing prescribed medicine with traditional remedies.

“I call upon the public not to buy traditional medicine advertised on mass media, but instead get treatment from certified doctors registered by the association,” he urged.

For her part, Dr Esther Innocent the Director of the Institute of Traditional Medicine at the University of Muhimbili and Allied Sciences said their responsibility is to conduct research on potential viable traditional medicines.

She said research showed that 60 percent of Tanzanians are using traditional medicine, yet the traditional healers they go to are not recognised placing their health at risk.

A traditional medicine user, Maria Joseph, resident of Kinondoni district, said she has attended different traditional clinics and seen various traditional healers and bought their medicines but was never a cured.
“I am broke now and I don’t know when I will be cured,” she lamented.