Be open about your HIV/Aids status, says Alex healer
ALEXANDRA - A traditional healer has cautioned his sickly fellow healers not to hide behind claims that they were possessed by ancestral spirits when in actual fact they have contracted the dreaded HIV/Aids disease.
A traditional healer has cautioned his sickly fellow healers not to hide behind claims that they were possessed by ancestral spirits when in actual fact they have contracted the dreaded HIV/Aids disease.
Sydney Mathebula of the Alex Traditional Healers Association was speaking at a function to mark World Aids Day at the Alexandra Health Centre and University Clinic, which is popularly known as Alex Clinic or as Masakhane Clinic after the popular TV series, Soul City, whose first episode was shot at the clinic.
“I know of my colleagues in the organisation and the field of healers who have contracted the Aids-causing virus, but hide behind the claim that they were possessed by ancestral spirits and therefore needed to go through the initiation school for traditional healers.
“This claim is not true. Some of those people have been infected by the Aids virus. People must stop hiding behind ‘amadlozi’ [ancestral spirits] when in actual fact they are HIV positive. If you come to me ask for initiation into the healers fraternity, I will do so, yet you know deep down that you are positive,” Mathebula said.
Mathebula warned against what he called a ‘heat of the moment’ where teenage girls get carried away especially over the festive season after experimenting with alcohol and then engage in unprotected sexual activity.
Mathebula said the girls often claim “I was drunk and then I kissed this guy and one thing led to another and we ended up having unprotected sex”. Statistics showed that there were more incidents of new infections in the early months of the new year, resulting from the festive season in which teenagers tend to be careless, Mathebula said.
The healer also had harsh words for parents who always warn their children that if they misbehave and become positive, they would have to pack their bags and leave the home. “How do we expect disclosure from our children when they have such a sword hanging above their heads.
“The next thing is that they will keep the infection secretive until its too late for any remedial treatment or until such time they collapse and die in front of you,” Mathebula said.
