When Faith*, a woman living with HIV, consults him at Health-e’€™s request, he says he will ‘€œcure’€ her of AIDS within six months ‘€“ at a cost of R14,500. He gives her his bank account details and says he will start the treatment as soon as the money has been deposited.

On street corners in the cities ‘€“ Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg ‘€“ little pamphlets are handed out advertising ‘€œdoctors’€ who can sort out every problem from ‘€œlost property and lost lovers’€ to erection and financial problems; HIV/AIDS and diabetes. One even urges: ‘€œGive me your penis for the weekend and I will make it work’€. Another, ‘€œDr Abdul’€ calls himself a ‘€œpenis expert’€ and offers a ‘€œnew steaming method’€.

Downtown Durban is also full of posters offering ‘€œsafe abortions’€ ‘€“ again with no address but just cellphone numbers.

Those answering the phone refuse to give their address, instead offering to meet outside shops in central town on either Smith or West Street. When asked if the procedure takes place in a clinic with proper medical care, one operator says: ‘€œDon’€™t worry. It’€™s just pills’€.

A duo of ‘€œtraditional doctors’€ calling themselves ‘€œProf Fahad and Dr Maama Fatimah from Central Africa’€ admit that they also offer abortions for around R400 a time.

The so-called doctors were also happy to conduct abortions for pregnancies that were over 20 weeks, which is completely illegal in South Africa. Terminations are conducted up to 12 weeks and then only up to 20 weeks under extraordinary circumstances.

In Cape Town, Health-e’€™s investigation takes us to a building off Plein Street ‘€“ a short walk from Parliament, which is the headquarters of another group of ‘€œDr Mamas’€, who refuse to talk to us.

But John*, a man who works in the building and has spoken to countless clients trying to get their money back, says the bogus doctors are notorious for making off with large sums of people’€™s money.

‘€œHe will say you must pay, say R4000 for your problem to be fixed,’€ says John. ‘€œBut when you come back again or call him, he will tell you that he is not in the office, he is somewhere else and if your problem didn’€™t go well, you have to pay other money. So they want you to run away and if you still want them to help you, you pay that other amount he is asking for from you because he knows that if you are desperate you will keep on paying and he knows that he has scammed you already.’€

Kingsley* was one of the desperate ones. Although he has laid a case of fraud against the bogus doctors, it is unlikely that he will ever recover the astounding R214,000 he has given to his particular ‘€˜Dr Mama’€™ to rid his house of evil spirits and take away his bad dreams.

‘€œI trusted them because they were Africans like me. On their advertising board they had explained they are from East Africa and that they help people,’€ says Kingsley.

But as John predicted, Kingsley’€™s money was never enough. They told him that his problem was particularly difficult and that they would need a number of special ingredients, including lion’€™s blood.

‘€œMe and my wife discussed this and decided to take R70 000 from my bond. I gave them the money,’€ says Kingsley. ‘€œHe then came back to me and told me that the lion blood cost has now gone up to R14,000 a litre, which meant that they now needed R98,000. I then went back to the bond, took out another R28 000 and gave it to him.

John says that over 20 herbal doctors operate from the premises, and that some even perform abortions in their rooms.

‘€œPeople that they have seen they come back, but they can’€™t get their money back, and those herbal doctors will move to other place or change their names,’€ he says.

E-mails and messages sent to the ‘€œDr Mamas’€ in Cape Town elicited immediate responses and several follow-up calls to check when the prospective client would be paying them a visit.

Dr Musa told Health-e in an e-mail: ‘€œYou will have to stop the ARVs as soon as u start to take my medicine, am going to send u a 2 litre bottle, where by u will take 2 big spoons in the morning, 2 after noon en 2 at night. all will be 6 spoons per day (sic). Yes! it will fight the Human Immune Virus and after   a short period, the virus will be gone. It is going to cost u 1200 rands.’€

A ‘€œProf Raoul’€ confirmed that he could terminate a pregnancy and treat HIV at a cost of R1 200 for both. ‘€œI will give you clinthor to make the virus weak and to make your body strong. For that (termination) I will give you aharb which will remove it (pregnancy) in 24 hours’€.

Another ‘€œdoctor’€ gave the assurance that everything could be done within three to seven days.

All the ‘€œdoctors’€ instructed the Health-e journalist to meet them outside shops in the city centre. ‘€œFor you kind of problem we need to go to my other office,’€ the one ‘€œdoctor’€ said.

All those who have had dealings with the ‘€˜Dr Mamas’€ feared to give their names, explaining that they worked in syndicates and were usually from outside the country ‘€“ Nigerians in the case of Durban and Cameroonian in Cape Town.

Informal security was posted outside both the Durban and Cape Town.

In June, Carte Blanche exposed the street abortionists willing to give pills to people well who were seven months’€™ pregnant, yet they continue to operate freely.

Treatment Action Campaign leader Nathan Geffen said that quacks had been ‘€œallowed to operate freely under former president Thabo Mbeki and former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang because they supported quack cures such as Virodene, touted as a cure for AIDS’€.

The Department of Health failed to respond to requests to explain how these quacks were still allowed to operate. ‘€“ health-e news.

* names changed at the people’€™s request.