A CONCERNED Bulawayo resident has called on the government to consider the use of traditional herbal medicine in light of the crumbling health sector in Zimbabwe.
Mcabango Mpande has since written a petition to the Health and Child Care ministry through the Mhlahlandlela Government Complex in Bulawayo arguing that for hundreds of years before colonisation, Zimbabweans sustained their health using time-tested traditional herbal medicine.
He said during the colonial period, the Rhodesians deliberately suppressed Zimbabwean traditional herbal medicine through the Witchcraft Suppression Act of 1899 and the Medicines and Allied Substances Control Act of 1969.
“The Medicines and Allied Substances Control Act is still in force to this day, 45 years after we attained independence and is still being used to arrest Zimbabwean traditional herbalists, who are trying to assist fellow Zimbabwean patients, on allegations of selling unregistered medicine,” he said.
“Current scenario: It is a well-known fact that Zimbabwean public clinics and hospitals have been facing serious challenges in the supply of medicine for almost 20 years now.”
Mpande said the bulk of the new medicine supplied to public health institutions were donations from foreign countries, some of which are hostile to Zimbabwe and not registered according to the Medicines and Allied Substances Control Act.
“As a country, we now have a situation where our people are being exposed to unregistered foreign medicine, while being denied access to their own time-tested indigenous traditional herbal medicines,” Mpande said.
He said there was also a danger as the world was facing serious geopolitical conflicts.
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“This security cannot be guaranteed by relying on foreign donations but by developing and promoting our own indigenous traditional herbal medicines,” he said.
The petition was copied to the permanent secretaries of Justice, Industry and Commerce, Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology, Home Affairs, State Security and Defence ministries.
The Health and Child Care ministry is yet to respond to the petition.
