_22-year old student has never seen a hospital; her grandmother healed her_
By Emily Setona
QWAQWA — Karabelo Matjele is 22, a Bachelor of Administration student, and she has never set foot inside a clinic or hospital since the day she was born.
Her doctor has always been her paternal grandmother — a respected traditional healer, a gogo.
“My paternal grandmother is a gogo, so as a child growing up, I was always administered with traditional herbs and medicines, so I have never been to the hospital except maybe when I was born,” Matjele told _The Guard._
It is more than a childhood habit. It is a bond that she says saved her life.
“From what my grandmother and mother have told me, when I was born, I had a bent spinal cord and couldn’t walk until, through her traditional healing and knowledge, my grandmother healed me. Here I am, 22 years old, and I am perfectly fine,” she said.
Today, when she is ill, her first call is still to her grandmother. Even in the stress of university life, it is indigenous medicine that carries her through.
“Even when it’s time for my exams here at school, I am always sure to tell my grandmother, and she’d prepare me a mixture of herbs that assist with my focus and concentration,” she said.
On a modern campus where traditional healing can still attract whispers and stigma, Matjele feels no shame — only pride.
“Growing up, I’ve never felt the stigma or shame around having a traditional healer for a granny, because despite her not being educated in the university like me, she is very educated and wise in the ways that I’ve seen her heal other people,” she reflected.
*FROM HOME TO NATIONAL POLICY*
Matjele’s story mirrors the reality of millions of South Africans for whom family healers are the first and trusted line of care.Beyond households, the sector is increasingly organized.
Umbrella bodies like the Traditional Healers Organisation (T.H.O.) unite practitioners, defend their rights and uphold ethical standards.
At state level, the practice is formally recognised through the Traditional Health Practitioners Act (Act No. 22 of 2007), which established the Interim Traditional Health Practitioners Council of South Africa.
According to the Department of Health, the Act provides for the registration, training and professional conduct of practitioners — a move designed to integrate indigenous knowledge into the broader public health system while protecting patients.
For Matjele, though, regulation is distant. Healing is personal.It is her grandmother’s hands, her herbs, and a knowledge that has kept her well for 22 years.
