Sakhile Ndlazi
PRETORIA: Traditional healers and the Albinism Society of SA (ASSA) have stressed the need to teach people about albinism in order to combat violence and discrimination against albinos.
Members of the Traditional Healers Organisation also dismissed myths that albino body parts can be used to make traditional medicine, saying people were blemishing their reputation for the own evil deeds.
“We don’t use albino parts to perform our rituals. The accusations are ungodly and disrespectful to our calling,” said one of the members.
The traditional healers were part of an awareness campaign by the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, hosted at Freedom Park yesterday.
Attacks on albinos are on the rise, linked to a growing demand for body parts prized in black magic to allegedly bring good fortune.
Commission chairperson Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva welcomed the dispelling of the myth by the traditional leaders, saying: “Maybe if the public hear it from the traditional healers, then maybe people will stop killing albinos.”
Siphiwe Mkhwemte, a 25-year-old albino, has been living in fear for most of his life.
Mkhwemte heard that practitioners of witchcraft will pay as much R900 000 for a full set of albino body parts, using them to make “spells”. “We are tired of living in fear.”
He said people also believed horrible myths about them – “that we are not human and never die”.
Chairperson of ASSA Nomasonto Mazibuko said she also grew up being discriminated against because of her albinism..
She said there was still prejudice at most levels in South Africa.