South African employees’ perceptions of the inclusion of traditional health practitioners’ services in workplace employee assistance programmes
Introduction
Historically, due to colonization and apartheid, traditional health practitioners (THPs) have been sidelined in South Africa. However, in the past decade, there has been a resurgence of interest in THPs’ methods as practised by indigenous South Africans (Peltzer & Khoza, 2002).
This resurgence has been driven by the increase in the discourse about African’s valuing and loving who they are and decolonizing themselves from Western thoughts and beliefs. In public discourse, more individuals have spoken up about being izangoma or izinyanga, including celebrities, such as radio personality and actor Treasure Tshabalala, female hip-hop artist Boitumelo Thulo, actresses Dineo Langa, Letoya Makhene, and Lerato Mvelase, actors Zola Hashatsi and Bongani Masondo, musical artist Phelo Bala and singer Buhle Mda (eNCA, 2019).
The actual research document is listed below:
original source: Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health
Radio and television shows have also included programming where THPs and cultural experts are interviewed to educate their audiences about African traditions and cultures (MetroFM, 2018). Traditional health practitioners are also engaging publicly on traditional health practices on social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. The Statistics South Africa General Household Survey (2018) indicates that there has been an increase in the use of THPs in the country between 2002 and 2014, the highest it has been in 14 years (StatsSA, 2018). Previously, it was reported that traditional medicine is used by 80% of South Africans to satisfy their primary healthcare needs (Mbatha, Street, Ngcobo, & Gqaleni, 2012).
Although the workplace has been transformed immensely since democracy in South Africa, where 91% of the South African workforce are black people of which 78,8% are African (CEE, 2019), little has been done to accommodate the wellness needs of this diverse workforce (Govender & Vandayar, 2018). For many black South Africans, especially Africans, the existing model of employee assistance programmes (EAPs) in the country has inadequately incorporated and addressed cultural aspects of spirituality, such as the importance of ancestors (Maynard, 2017), with very few organizations accommodating African cultural beliefs. For example, the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) has a THP on its staff and student counseling and wellness programme. The University of Pretoria accepts sick notes from a registered THP. Sun International and the Chamber of Mines have a similar agreement with employees granted three days’ leave to consult a traditional healer. (Mbatha et al., 2012). Govender and Vandayar (2018) also report that some EAPs have started to reach out to THP associations when dealing with issues of employees undergoing intwaso, a traditional initiation to become a THP.
The existing model of EAPs follows modern allopathic medicine and modern psychology that are influenced by the Western approach to knowledge and do not recognize the cultural difference that is typical of a multicultural country, such as South Africa. For example, in general, EAPs are composed of social workers, human resource specialists, and occupational health practitioners (Govender & Vandayar, 2018; Willemse, 2018). In South Africa, these specialists and practitioners have studied at higher education institutions that have imprinted a Western praxis, which has resulted in the neglect of African knowledge and identity (Plaatjie, 2021). In addition, over the past few years, the lack of therapeutic models capable of accommodating all cultures are being recognized as a limitation on the impact of counseling (EAPA-SA, 2022; Madlingozi, 2019).