MEC ROOI ADDRESSES NORTHERN CAPE MEDICINAL AND

INDIGENOUS PLANT WORKSHOP.

The cultivation of medicinal plants and their benefits for indigenous communities will be fiercely debated at a workshop to be held at Kimberley’s Kalahari Lodge at 09h00 (am) tomorrow. The Northern Cape’s Department of Agriculture, Land Reform, Environment and Conservation will be hosting the workshop in an effort to develop a database on the medicinal and cosmetic value of endemic plants. The Province has over 6 000 plant species that occur in 13 major veld types.

Representatives from various indigenous groupings, researchers, and traditional healers will be attending the workshop to shed light on all the medicinal plants and to forge a partnership with government. The workshop will further assist in eliminating the loss of revenue from products that are patented by Western countries and in informing communities on intellectual property rights. MEC Dawid Rooi’s keynote address will set the tone for the one-day workshop’s debate.

The Department’s visionary approach is aimed at stimulating entrepreneurship for large-scale job creation opportunities, creating awareness and establishing a community-owned knowledge base on medicinal plants. The province’s Kgalagadi-San and Griqua communities are known gurus of medicinal plants. This was demonstrated through the historic signing of agreement on patency rights of the appetizer P57-Hoodia between the Kgalagadi-San and the Centre for Science, Innovation and Research in March this year.

Enquiries: Thabo Mothibi @ 083 255 8840 / tmothibi@grand.ncape.gov.za