Botswana: Let's Learn From Malawi

Gaborone

Reports that Parliament in Malawi has come up with a draft policy, which, if passed into law, will make it an offence for anybody, including traditional healers and churches, to claim that they can cure AIDS, is a step in the right direction.

In fact, we call upon the Botswana government to adopt a similar legislation to help deal with some bogus and unscrupulous institutions that have lately flooded the country. For instance, it is not uncommon to come across advertisements in local newspapers in which the so-called healers make unfounded claims on how they can help people overcome the killer disease. In some cases, they even claim that they make those confined to the wheelchair walk while the sick are healed just on the basis of their faith in God! In Malawi, the government is said to be examining a draft legislation aimed at ridding the HIV/AIDS-plagued Southern African country of quacks claiming to cure the virus through such remedies as "sex with virgins".

"When it passes into law, all traditional healers claiming to cure AIDS will be dealt with," Mary Shaba, head of HIV/AIDS issues for Malawi's health ministry, told a parliamentary committee asked to provide input to the measure before it is submitted to the full 193-member parliament later this year.

The other aspect of the Act is intended to regulate and protect people from healers who prescribe "sex with albinos, the disabled or virgins" as a cure for HIV and AIDS, she said of the Bill drafted in collaboration with Traditional Malawi Healers Association and the World Health Organisation (WHO). One hopes that the new law will also specify possible sanctions to be taken against bogus healing claims for a virus that has devastated Malawi, one of the poorest countries in southern African, infecting more than one in 10 people.

The existence of such 'doctors' and institutions threaten to erode some of the gains that Botswana has made in the fight against HIV and AIDS. It is high time that the nation rose up to deal with such threats. We can also take a leaf from Kenyan experience. Under Kenya's draft legislation, the country's 30,000 traditional healers -- many of whom operate in towns and villages where hospitals are few and far between -- will be required to register with a board set up by the ministry of health.

On our part, Mmegi has, as a matter of policy, taken it upon itself not to carry any advertisement that makes lies and unfounded claims about the potency of some of the medicines provided by traditional healers, and offering to cure HIV and AIDS.

So it is up to our government to protect the nation against some of these charlatans and prophets of doom hell bent on exploiting the unsuspecting Batswana for their own financial gain.