New Zinpa president Nyaruvenda hits the ground running

Zimbabwe National Practitioner Council (Zinpa), has embarked on an initiative to establish its offices across the country in a bid to compliment government efforts to licence all spiritual healers.

Government made it clear that all healers should have adequate papers for their practice.

Zinpa is an affiliate of the Traditional Medicine Practitioners Council (TIMPC) which is an arm of the ministry of Health and Child Care.

In an interview the new Zinpa president Mr Cuthbert Nyaruvenda said his organisation is back on its feet and raring to go.

He said the death of their founding President, Mr Friday Chisanyu and the prolonged lockdown period due to Covid-19 affected their operations and goals.

“After the death of our founding president Mr Chisanyu things became difficult to an extent that some people thought that we are finished.

“We then fought hard, managed to hold an election and i was then elected to be the new president.

“From the day i assumed office, notable progress has been recorded in the organisation, our membership has increased and we are now operating normally,” said Mr Nyaruvenda.

He added ” We are on a drive to open offices countrywide and i am pleased to inform you that the Harare office if fully functional, in Mutare (Manicaland) we have already opened an office same as in Karoi (Mashonaland West) and this week we are opening our Midlands office in Kwekwe,” he said.

Mr Nyaruvenda said their mandate is to register all spiritual healers with adequate papers.

“The reason why we want to establish our presents in all provinces is that our people – spiritual healers- are everywhere, some of them can not afford to come to Harare others have no idea that they should register hence the initiative.

“We register Traditional healers, Midwives, Apostolic sects and Prophets. We are responsible for giving them licences to operate legally,” he said.

Mr Nyaruvenda said since they started rebuilding Zinipa they now have more than 800 members.

“The major challenge that we are facing is that Apostolic sects leaders are refusing to comply with government directives, people should understand that it is not allowed by the law to give people either a stone or water claiming that it has spiritual or healing powers without a valid license, people should know that its a crime.

“In the same vein i want to urge the generality of our people to be very vigilant because there are many bogus healers out there who claim to have spiritual powers with the sole agenda to dupe people,” he added.

Zinpa will hold its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in October this year.