Lindi herbalists want govt recognition

 Lindi. The association of traditional healers in Lindi region has asked the government to issue them with certificates in order to be recognised and do their work more confidently and efficiently.

The chairman of the association, Mr Abubakari Kapunda said this during a symposium involving herbalists from the region.

Even so, he called for the arrest of all those traditional doctors engaging in healing without having certification, stressing that some of them were conmen.

Mr Kapunda has revealed that the government is issuing certificates to some herbalists without confirming weather they possess valid certificates or not, which makes some people shy away from herbal treatment.

For his part, the Lindi Regional Police Commander, Mr Renata Mzinga, on behalf of the Lindi Regional Commissioner, Mr Godfrey Zambi, says that they will cooperate in identifying and arresting conmen posing as traditional healers, adding that tougher measures would be taken against them.

Some of the traditional healers that attended the symposium asked the government to empower them so that they could develop their work, saying 60 per cent of patients were healed by them, but, they said, they were not taken seriously by the society.

The region has a total of 771 herbalists and 220 out of them have been issued with the licenses.