Dispatches14 independentNOVEMBER 10 2013

THE SUNDAY

TOMORROW in theSupreme Court of Appeal(SCA) in Bloemfontein, apenniless gogo from aremote rural area, will be

pitted against a multimillion-randDutch-owned company in a six-year-long battle that remains trappedbetween South African mindsets ofcoloniser and colonised.

The case of Johanna Mmoledi,46, a chef de partie who was fired bythe upmarket country estate KievitsKroon outside Pretoria, after takinga month’s unpaid leave to get heal-ing for her psychological affliction –via sangoma training – reopenstomorrow in the SCA.

Kievits Kroon, owned by Dutchbusinessman Ton Verachter (which,ironically, means “despiser”) – fearsso deeply that “Africans will diag-nose themselves and turn the workenvironment into total disarray”that it has spared no expenses in acostly and relentless legal pursuit ofa woman who earned a mere R4 000a month. Since 2008, Kievits Kroonhas refused three court orders(CCMA, Labour and Labour Appeal)to reinstate Mmoledi in her job – byescalating the battle to highercourts, perhaps to the Constitution-al Court if the SCA also rules inMmoledi’s favour.

Scratching under the veneer ofwhat poses as a labour dispute liesan undisclosed battle of ignoranceand prejudice that has raged inAfrica since the first colonisers setfoot here.

For Mmoledi and her three chil-

dren the consequences of this tena-cious six-year wrangle were devas-tating. They lost everything. Shecannot obtain UIF, or new employ-ment, due to bureaucracy: by courtorder she is reinstated, but in reali-ty she is not.

They had to leave their Pretoriahome for a remote rural area.

However, this case is not aboutMmoledi. It is about what she sym-bolises – namely the emergence ofglobal legal reforms around Indige-nous Knowledge Systems as equal toWestern systems. Ethan Watters, inhis book, Crazy Like Us, says:“Western healers are steamrollingindigenous expressions of mentalhealth and replace them with theirown concepts; the West prescribes tothe rest of the world how it mustdefine wellness, healing and mentaldisease, how it must go crazy.”

Renowned Dutch cultural and

international psychiatrist ProfessorJoop de Jong, founder of the Trans-cultural Psychosocial Organisation(largest NGO providing mentalhealth services in more than 20countries in Africa, Asia andEurope), says: “Traditional healersare the primary care mental healthproviders for the majority of globalcommunities. The fact that new psy-chotherapies are no more effectivethan older ones – despite their ‘evi-dence-based status’ – is sometimeshard to accept. Healers have beendescribed as the ‘ideal’ primary careworkers (as) they are geographical-ly, culturally and financially accessi-ble. The question remains how toinvolve healers in our public mentalsystem… Talking about healersalways elicits intense emotionsamong all levels of the population.”

Article 31 in the UN’s declarationon the rights of indigenous peoplestates that “indigenous peoples havethe right to maintain, control, pro-tect and develop their… sciences,technologies and cultures, includ-ing… medicines, knowledge of theproperties of fauna and flora, oraltraditions”.

Unfortunately, through colonisa-tion, many black South Africanshave been so stripped of their ownexpressions regarding mentalhealth that even arguments fromMmoledi’s black legal teams overthe years have missed this historicalmoment to dynamically forge SAlegal reforms that are already sup-ported by global movements whoadvocate for the integration of

Indigenous Knowledge Systems intomainstream health practises.

And so Mmoledi’s constitutionalright to health is absent in this case.

Lengthy expert evidence on therights to culture and religion –which are easy to find – are submit-ted; instead of using the more com-plex but available evidence thatestablishes African traditionalhealing as a recognised healthparadigm.

Constitutional rights to healthare clear to everyone – irrespectiveof religion or culture. Why posethese as a main argument? Sango-mas have never been called“priests” – they have always beenknown everywhere as amaquirha

(doctors, healers).What is this focus on religion and

culture when discussing Africa? Isthe Western paradigm not a culture,a well-disguised religious beliefsystem posing as atheism?

In six years no expert evidencewas lead by Mmoledi’s team todemystify sangoma training for theWestern business community.

Both Kievits Kroon and Mmole-di’s legal teams seem to know noth-ing of how sangoma training works.It is erroneously referred to as a“course” or “classes” – as if taken ingood health – and not as a process ofillness leading to recovery – which,if successfully managed, will lead toinitiation as sangoma. Carl Jungsays: “A good half of every treat-ment… consists in the doctor’sexamining himself… It is his ownhurt that gives a measure of his

power to heal.”On both sides there is a denial, or

omission, of the fact that Mmolediwas ill; that she suffered from a psy-chological issue – in a similar waythat a “Western” person/employeecan suffer an issue – and enter atherapy “course” for months to re-establish themselves.

A cultural psychiatrist, Dr VeraBührmann, explains in her bookLiving in Two Worlds that the “clin-ical picture of thwasa (a sangomatrainee) resembles an emotional dis-turbance, accompanied by physicalsymptoms… and (they) become real-ly ill physically…

“The belief in the ancestors havemany similarities to Westerners’concept of the unconscious, hisexperience of the archetypes andhis obligation to pay attention tothese as they appear in his dreams,visions, fantasies and in his sponta-neous, creative activities. To remainhealthy, (this is not) nonsense or‘just imagination’…

“The difficulty (for Westerners)is the term ‘ancestor worship’. Itseems more correct to talk andwrite about ‘ancestor reverence’ and‘ancestor remembering’… Theclaim that prolonged resistance tothe ancestor’s call can lead to insan-ity is not to be taken lightly… neg-lected cases of thwasa can becomepsychotic… In Western psychiatry itis accepted that early treatment ofpsychological problems is desirable,i.e. before the condition becomeschronic or too disruptive for theindividual, his associates and

general environment”. Sangomas vs employers are

more about the right to health thanrights to culture/religion. HRshould advise employees withthwasa symptoms to see a qualifiedsangoma.

Dr Jo Wreford, an anthropolo-gist, emphasises that “diagnosis of acalling to ukuthwasa must be madeby a qualified isangoma as the con-dition is distinguished by resist-ance to biomedical doctors”.

Kievits Kroon’s HR managertreated Mmoledi’s sick certificatewith contempt and informedMmoledi that she will be fired –whereas a white employee reportingsimilar issues is likely to have beenadvised to see a psychologist.

Kievits Kroon’s argument thatMmoledi’s absence from duty wasnot due to circumstances beyond

her control, is countered byBührmann: “One is often forcedinto analysis by inner conflict or anintolerable life situation, and not byrational reasoning or consciouschoice… The inner compulsion is sostrong that one has little, if any,choice.”

It will be a sad day when Mmole-di’s endeavour to heal, which in aWestern paradigm would be consid-ered prudent, is judged as an offenceby the Supreme Court – effectivelydenying the future of African tradi-tional healing – at the very momentin time when its recognition takesoff in global indigenous knowledgemovements.

From a psychological perspec-tive, it will destroy a unique way ofworking with the subconscious orhuman psyche. South Africa is oneof the few accessible places in theworld where the power of ritual andceremony is still alive and practisedmore or less in its original form.Many foreigners and academicsflock to this country to study ritualand to partake in it for healing pur-poses. Many discover healingthrough it.

African ritual and ceremony is aglobal treasure. It is ours. Let usreclaim world sanity by protectingthis Indigenous Knowledge Systemwith solid sangoma training, clearinformation, cross-cultural fertilisa-tion and appropriate legal reform.

■ De Wet is a Pondo and Swazi-

trained sangoma and freelance

writer living in Cape Town.

Annelie de Wet

Indigenous healing must be respected in the workplace

DOES anyone under-stand Joburg’s idea ofa clean city? Thecleaning isn’t justabout removing litter.It also involves taking

hawkers off the pavements.“Operation Clean Sweep” has

not only seen thousands of hawkerspushed off the streets, but has alsocut off their source of livelihood.

Officials reckon hawkers arepart of the city’s unseemly sight, amanifestation of urban decay. Inremoving them, city planners hopeto bring an end to “illegal trading;illegal dumping and littering; landand building invasions and otherby-law contraventions; illegal con-nection of infrastructure includingtheft of electricity and the lack of asense of civic pride and owner-ship”. Downtown Joburg soundslike a real mess, doesn’t it?

Any law-abiding citizen must ofcourse sympathise with the citygovernment. It is, after all, their jobto maintain law and order.

However, a closer look that caststhe eye beyond this particular inci-dent, to how the city has generallytreated its hawkers, reveals a muchmore fundamental problem thanjust a dirty pavement.

A two-year study on poverty,inequality and patronage-politicsthat the Mapungubwe Institute isscheduled to release next Tuesday,shows that officialdom suffers froma paradigmatic problem.

In hawkers, city planners don’tquite see entrepreneurs. They see anuisance. Inevitably, the officialdemeanour is to control hawkers,limit their movement so that theydon’t infest the entire city.

In other words municipal by-laws and initiatives don’t seemgeared to aid hawkers to thrive, buteffectively retard their economicactivity.

Take the trading permits, forinstance. Permits confine hawkersto a particular spot. This meets thecity’s impulse for regulatory con-trol, but is unhelpful to hawkers. Inthe interviews conducted as part ofthe study, hawkers complained thattheir economic activity flourisheson mobility. They go where theircustomers are located, moving fromone spot to another.

A construction site, for example,is an instant market to hawkers.They sell foodstuff and other dailyneeds to labourers at the site. Oncethe construction is complete thatcustomer base disappears, but anew construction site elsewhereprovides yet another customer base.

To capitalise on the mobility oftheir customers, hawkers need to besimilarly flexible. Tying them toone spot is obviously unhelpful.

If not downright disruptive,hawkers berate the officialdom ofbeing inconsiderate. They’re notforewarned of roadworks, forinstance. This probably appearstrivial to some of us.

But repairs on roads that carry alarge concentration of pedestriansand even motorists interfere withbusiness. It denies hawkers of cus-

tomers, which entails a potentialloss of income.

Because they sell perishablefood-stuff, quick sales are crucial toprevent their stock going off.

The hawkers we interviewed forthe study felt quite strong about get-ting advance warning of impedingrepairs on their “business sites” sothat they’re able to prepare accord-ingly.

And the problem is not confinedto Joburg. The Western Cape’s Over-strand Local Municipality suffersfrom a similar problem, albeit in adifferent form. It is a problem ofunequal access to the naturalresources of the area.

Hermanus, for instance, which isa coastal town, is endowed with nat-ural beauty and has a thriving fish-ing industry. The town’s colouredresidents, however, bitterly com-plain that they don’t enjoy similaraccess to the sea as the establishedfishing industry.

Only a limited number oflicences are issued to fishermen.They fish largely for subsistence.They don’t have boats, do packagingof their “catch” or marketing of thefish. This commercial aspect of theindustry is dominated by estab-lished white business. They havethe capital base to take full advan-tage of opportunities offered by the

industry. Inequality thus offers alopsided benefit from what is a nat-ural endowment.

In other words, coloured fisher-men fish for subsistence, whilewhite business does so for commer-cial gain. This contrasting benefitfrom the ocean has consequently ledto racial tension.

Fishermen see the limit imposedon the number of licences as a wayof entrenching commercial domi-nance over the industry. They dis-miss conservation measures gearedat protecting fish population as aruse to keep them out.

Their sense of grievance isaggravated by the sense that

coloured folks in Hermanus arecriminalised. They complain that amere sight of a coloured man wear-ing a swimsuit at the ocean is aninstant police suspect for poaching,while a white person in a similaroutfit doesn’t attract similar policeattention.

Just as in the case of Joburg,Hermanus’s poor feel that themunicipality is not on their side.

Instead, they charge that it sideswith property developers and thetown’s wealthy white residents, asignificant number of whom areforeigners.

The town’s natural beauty is amagnet for property developers and

property seekers. From the inter-views with locals, it appears that themunicipality is eager to make Her-manus attractive to wealthy resi-dents.

An example of this, we weretold, was the municipality prioritis-ing constructing entertainmentfacilities, such as golf courses, overproviding housing and basic ameni-ties for its residents.

And locals, especially those withhouses facing the ocean, are beingapproached by property-seekers tosell their homes. This, and munici-pal behaviour, has even created asense among some of the poor localresidents that there’s a “conspiracy

to drive them out” of the town tomake way for wealthy people.

If not by prejudice, poor peoplealso protest that efforts purportingto promote local economic activityare blunted by sheer nepotism.

In Free State’s Nketoana LocalMunicipality, near Ritz, numerousco-operatives, most of whom are ledby women, are idling.

Locals were encouraged to formco-operatives in order to take advan-tage of various economic activitiesthat would supposedly follow in thecommunity.

But now they complain that ten-ders go only to certain companies.

For a semi-rural place such asNketoana, whose economy has his-torically relied on a flagging agricul-tural sector, unemployment is a direproblem.

What is certainly clear is thatSouth Africa’s policy regime andofficial conduct is not consistentwith the country’s high level ofpoverty and unemployment. There’sno urgency to assist strugglinginformal traders out of poverty.

And the informal sector alreadyemploys a sizeable number of peo-ple, almost 2 million. This is quitesignificant for a country that’s fail-ing to create jobs.

It also shows self-initiative thatshould be commended.

Too many South Africans, morethan 16 million, already depend onsocial grants and services.

These range from cash-transfersand free electricity to paraffin andfood packages. Their livelihood iseffectively sustained by the state.

This is not viable, especiallybecause the revenue collection isdropping while the number of recip-ients of social welfare is increasing.

Informal trading lightens theburden on the fiscus, enabling peo-ple to fend for themselves.

And for a city that claims to bethe best “African City”, Joburg’sposture is mind-boggling.

Africa’s economy suffers from astructural problem that is a legacyof its colonial past. It’s primary-based, with a relatively small indus-trial sector. That is why the infor-mal sector is booming on the entirecontinent. Africans have taken tocreating a livelihood for themselves.Joburg cannot be located in Africa,yet hope not to suffer from Africanproblems. Or the city telling us thatwe “shouldn’t think like Africans,in Africa… generally”.

■ Ndletyana is head of the Politi-

cal Economy Faculty at the Mapun-

gubwe Institute for Strategic Reflec-

tion.

In hawkers,city planners don’t quite see entrepreneurs – theysee a nuisance,writes Mcebisi Ndletyana

Operation Clean Sweep… dirty game?

VOLATILE: Policearrested hawkersaround Joburg’sCBD in a clean-upoperation of thecity’s streets onOctober 24, attimes using forceto have themremoved. For acity that claims tobe the best“African City”, theMetro’s decisionsover issuesinvolving innercity trading ismind-boggling,says the writer.

PICTURE:ADRIAN DE KOCK

“AFRICAN RITUAL

AND CEREMONY

IS A GLOBAL

TREASURE