An elderly man dressed in bold African cloth walks up and down the rows inspecting the plants at the Vukuzenzele nursery and medicine garden in Thulamahashe near Bushbuckridge. Senior sangoma David Makhubela cares passionately for these plants.
Makhubela has for 50 years been using plants to heal his patients. He has seen how over the years medicinal plants have dwindled from the surrounding area, and he is angry with the government and the chiefs who he says have done nothing to prevent the plundering of the environment.
“No one is prepared to arrest people who are destroying nature or to try to find a solution to the problem,” says Makhubela. He believes cooperation is needed to ensure the sustainable use of natural resources.
Makhubela and his two wives, who are also sangomas, rely on plants from Vukuzenzele to treat their patients.
The medicine garden was established by 15 sangomas in 1998 when they noticed that crucial plants were being hacked from the bush for firewood.
“The shortage of medicinal plants frustrated us,” he says. About 75% of Limpopo’s residents consult sangomas and the shortage of plants grew desperate.
“Our patients came to us for help but when we went into the bush we couldn’t find the plants to heal them. Some of our patients died while they were waiting for medicine,” says Makhubela.
Vukuzenzele means “wake up and do it for yourself”. With the donation of 1,2ha by the Thulamahashe town council, and wooden structures, plants and a fence from the Danish Cooperation for Environment and Development, the traditional healers were able to take the phrase to heart.
The project was implemented by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, which sent the sangomas on a course in KwaZulu-Natal to learn about plant propagation, nursery management and ecology, and for follow-up training in Malelane.
The department also provided medicinal plants that were becoming scarce in South Africa. “We took alternative plants and tested them for three weeks to a month to find out whether they could treat diseases,” says Makhubela.
What began as an emergency plan to save valuable natural resources is becoming a feasible business venture.
Makhubela and the remaining five founders of Vukuzenzele nursery use the plants in their practices and sell the excess to other traditional healers.
The project has created jobs in the community by employing four gardeners to care for the plants.
Makhubela and his colleagues are active in training other sangomas to start growing medicinal plants.
Over the years Makhubela has trained more than 300 sangomas from as far afield as Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia and Swaziland.
He said he has managed to impart the importance of the medicinal plant project to at least 40 of his trainees who have started their own planting initiatives. ? African Eye News Service