A
lthough yet to be formally promulgated at the
health product manufacturers, distributors and suppliers
time of writing, the Medicines and Related
– who point out that such a determination will render
Substances Control Act (formerly Bill 6 of 2014,
the new law obviously incompetent, on the face of it,
on which we have previous reported) was signed into law
under the South African Constitution as being arbitrarily
by SA President Jacob Zuma in January.
discriminatory.
Ostensibly, this law is meant to harmonise certain
Either way, the new law will immediately face
aspects of the medicines and related substances industries
Constitutional and other legal challenges which, experts
in South Africa and to set up and empower the SA Health
say, will render it 'effectively dead in the water on birth'.
Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), an over-arching
All this is because the 'powers that be' within the
body under which all medicines, modern and allopathic
DoH have simply failed to attend to the long history of
or ancient, traditional, herbal or any other form, will fall.
negotiations and agreements on how to manage and
The problems with the law are manifold and
control CAMs (including TAMs) between government and
far-reaching.
For one thing, it is entirely unclear whether it will
cover Traditional African Medicines or not. The legal
secretariat of the Department of Health (DoH) has, on
the various stakeholders of an industry that just a couple
years ago was worth an estimated R9.8bn, now only
about half that.
In part this drastic collapse of the local CAMs industry is
the government will face what will amount to a citizens' uprising,
led by tens of thousands of traditional healers and their millions
of patients and clients – upwards of 80% of South Africans still
rely heavily on TAMs for a large part of their health treatments
separate occasions in the past, specifically and publicly
because of the encroachment of foreign interests into the
said it both does not cover Traditional African Medicines,
SA CAMs market and in part because of 'closing down of the
as used by SA's estimated 250 000 traditional practitioners,
CAMs industry space' which has been on the cards since
and, in stark contrast, that it is meant specifically to cover
the DoH unilaterally and without adequate consultation, as
these substances.
is required, issued legally bogus regulations in November
If it is meant to cover such Traditional African
Medicines (TAMs), there is certain to be the most strenuous
objection by the several bodies under whom the African
of CAMs (with no mention of TAMs, either explicitly or
implicitly) in the new law, and just prior to its signing by
this law represents the 'twin evils' of allowing foreign
President Zuma, was an obvious move to head off the
imperial control over the African pharmacopoeia and
legal challenges that the DoH knows are coming.
But reliable sources tell Odyssey Magazine that the
same DoH officials who have been driving the entire
In that case, the government will face what will
process along – determined to have CAMs, and quite
amount to a citizens' uprising, led by tens of thousands
possible also TAMs, forced into a straight-jacket of
of traditional healers and their millions of patients and
regulatory restrictions appropriate only for high-potency
clients – upwards of 80% of South Africans still rely
allopathic drugs with dangerous side-effects – are already
heavily on TAMs for a large part of their health treatments.
saying (privately) that the obviously unlawful regulations
On the other hand, if the new law does not cover TAMs,
which the department issued in November 2013 will be
it will be attacked by groups like The Traditional & Natural
Health Alliance (TNHA) – a grouping of complementary
•
The withdrawal, at the 11th hour, of the definition
bodies' spokespersons have told Odyssey Magazine that
simply will not allow.
DIGIMAG
formally put onto the statute books.
Traditional Practitioners are organised. Some of these
imposing a new form of 'medical apartheid', which they
ODYSSEY 16
2013 which aimed to achieve what this new law has now
enforced.
The view from inside the DoH is believed to be that,