SOME TRADITIONAL HEALERS VOW TO STAND IN MWEWA’S LANE
SOME traditional healers have vowed to defy Lusaka Mayor Simon Mwewa’s campaign to remove all their banners, posters, and advertisements from public spaces in Lusaka.
Mr Mwewa recently said all banners belonging to traditional doctors would be removed from public spaces by mid-next year, with perpetrators facing fines and charges for false advertising and defacing public property.
Traditional Healers Association of Zambia (TAPAZ) president Rodwell Vongo has backed Mr Mwewa’s action, saying it is a good cause that should be supported by all who mean well for the city of Lusaka.
But in an interview, a traditional doctor operating under the name Akufa Azauka wondered why the mayor is targeting traditional doctors alone when many other businesses also advertise their products and services in the same manner.
Akufa Azauka questioned how people will know about the services they provide if they do not advertise themselves.
Another doctor operating as Dr Ivy said he understood the mayor is implementing the law but questioned his interest in their business, saying he had observed that even before being elected, the mayor was still removing their banners and posters.
Professor Kaffe, who said he was out of town on business and could not speak much, said while he does not see anything wrong with the posters, he urged the Lusaka mayor to go ahead and remove them if he wanted.
However, Dr Vongo is urging traditional doctors to put their banners and posters at their own operating stations as opposed to littering the city with posters, an act he described as unprofessional and contributing immensely to the dirtiness of the city.
Dr Vongo said that while he understands the existing immense competition, it does not mean people should abrogate the law, saying that in countries like the United Kingdom and South Africa, one cannot find such posters in public places yet they, too, have traditional doctors.
“Let us respect our city and keep it clean, failure to which we will be inviting diseases and causing accidents. I know I am supposed to defend our members, but on this one I will not because they are supposed to use polite ways of advertising. We have told our members to refrain from that, but how will even the public look at our profession?” Dr Vongo said.
He wondered why so many traditional healers are the ones selling themselves to patients when the Bible says the sick will look for the physician, as opposed to the current situation where traditional doctors are the ones selling themselves.
He said what the mayor is doing is for a good cause and should be supported in the spirit of ensuring cleaner cities, because cleanliness is next to godliness.
ZDM