Most people turn to us, so let us help fight pandemics: traditional healers

The scent of herbs burning wafts through an Nyanga surgery in Cape Town, where traditional healer Ntholiseng Mokoeqo treats patients. “No mask, no entry,” is her motto and, until lockdown level 2, patients were not allowed inside.

“They would talk to me from the road and I would give them medicine to treat their symptoms,” says the healer, who, like many of her colleagues, was isolated in the early days of the pandemic.

Traditional healers were not allowed to treat patients in person under strict lockdown because they were not recognised as essential services...