Indigenous trees nursery collapse

As the whoopla over the establishment of the first ever traditional clinic in the country rages on, one cannot help but wonder  where the ingredients to manufacture the drugs to be administered to patients at that clinic will come from.
The clinic, whose sod was cut early this week at a remote village called Nhlambeni in the Northern Hhohho region, could probably be the first in the continent, which is not exactly the point here.
The point is that it becomes a manifestation of a life long dream by the traditional healers in the country, who have been beating the ritualistic drums to get full recognition from central government through the ministry of health.
overcoat
Led by the ever charismatic President of the Traditional Healers Association, Dr Nhlavana Maseko, the traditional practitioners also known as Tinyanga this week managed to coax the Minister of Health Bennedict Xaba out of his doctor’s white overcoat and stethoscope as he drove all the way to Nhlambeni where he represented his ministry and ultimately government as the sod  was cut.
The clinic will be manned and administered by the Tinyanga in a way they know best, which means there will be no X-ray machines but bone mending imihlabelo, while the dispensary will be of a different kind doling out powdery stuff manufactured from a number of medicinal trees the Tinyanga know and understand.
As said before, this has been the dream of these practitioners since the ages and in 2002, with the ‘collusion’ of the University of Swaziland, Agriculture Faculty at Luyengo, a nursery for indigenous medicinal trees was established at Mpisi Farm just after Mafutseni.
The project was to nurture and grow such medicinal trees while research in their healing qualities would be going on.
The Tinyanga again would play a leading role in sourcing such trees and propagating them, which meant they would be pivotal in ensuring that the nursery thrives.
Sadly, the nursery has, instead of thriving, gone to the dogs.
A visit to this week showed a dilapidated place where trees are failing to grow, including marula ones, which should be thriving as they are compatible to the area.
In fact, marula trees grow in abundance in the area, as to how they fail to thrive at just this nursery, is an age old mystery.
The infrastructure, including drip irrigation pipes has been lying idle without use, while a state of the art pump to be used in irrigating the trees has not produced a single drop.
The only thriving trees are Syringas, (Umsilinga) who ironically, are not indigenous to Swaziland.
What is certain though is that the place is neglected, whatever happened to the grandiose dreams of a traditional hospital that would have been the pride of Africa that were bandied about during the 2002 launch held at the Kwaluseni Campus.
When called for comment, Professor Edje from the Luyengo Agriculture faculty and who was among the pioneers of the research project, admitted that it was hit by problems right from the onset.
problems
“In fact, it is not really going well as we speak. We had problems with water even though the Mbuluzi River runs its course nearby. A pump was bought but it was not properly installed hence it has been lying there with out being use,” the Professor said.
Although insisting that it was not procedural for him to be replying to questions from reporters since a new person has been appointed to resuscitate the nursery, he reluctantly added that the water problem was so severe such that it hindered the growth of the trees that had been planted.
“The pump was not properly installed in the sandy river thus causing infrastructural installation failure hence all the support equipment could not be used. But you can get the full details from the new person.” He said.
Efforts to get Dr Priscilla Dlamini who has been recently appointed to head this project proved futile as she was said to be outside the country.
Further efforts to get comments from Dr Nhlavana Maseko also failed as it was reported that he is also away in Durban.