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Article: Sangomas step out of the shadows: despite South Africa's determination to place traditional healing on a par with modern medicine, a new law has set alarm bells ringing in industry. Tom Nevin has the details.
- Article from:
- African Business
- Article date:
- June 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 IC Publications Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The doctor's note that lets employees take a few days off work is the latest glitch in efforts to bring together under one umbrella organisation South Africa's traditional healers and biomedical doctors.
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Although the Traditional Health Practitioners' Act has already been signed into law, little real movement in applying the new legislation has been made, mainly due to the very wide gap waiting to be bridged between traditional and bio medicine. Economic, social and professional headaches abound. Just one of which is the issue of doctors' notes.
As it is, absenteeism punishes the South African economy by around R36bn ($6bn) ...