“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Matthew 23:23


The word confusion comes from the Latin words confusus and confundere which is a state of disorder where things are jumbled in an unclear fashion. The Allied Health Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe AHPCZ is yet to announce its council since its elections which ended in January 2025. Members especially from psychology have reached this historic moment were six months after elections they don’t know the full council members. Winners of the council elections are known, the registered practitioners are yet to know from AHPCZ who are the full council members and the chairpersons therefore. In past election process by this time in psychology we could have had a new regulatory frame work thus psychology regulations and an education committee.
What we currently know as practitioners in psychology is that Professor Hebert Zirima was elected as a psychology council member. It is unfortunate that we don’t know the current education committee, which informs of psychological educational standards and trainings. It’s not sure how the elected member without an education committee is running the affairs of psychology in this nation assuming that the council might be operational. Assuming that there is no council in place and the chairpersons of AHPCZ are yet to be elected, then what it means is that AHPCZ is on auto pilot including the disciplines within it.


The “Confafa”
It is interesting that psychology as a discipline has used the old psychology regulations of March 2021 in running the elections of 2025. Precedence as a historian of psychology informs me that the previous psychology regulations should be replaced soon after the elections as a way to update the current practices in the evolving field of human behavioral sciences found in psychology. It is unfortunate that the field of psychology has been thrown in the deep end of mists of confusion by not allowing a timeous update of psychology regulations before the first board exams were done.
The absence of a known council means psychology goes without a known representation and those who have issues or grievances which on their nature need a complete council might have to tarry to a time when the full councils and its chairpersons are made known. It is paradoxical that fully registered practitioners are in the dark about the full council and its chairpersons when every year the AHPCZ follows up practitioners especially in psychology and publishing their names if they have not registered thus paid their yearly fees. However the same energy is lost by AHPCZ in expediting council business which affect the practitioners whom they pursue with great zest when it comes with annual practice fees.


The misdirected energy


I have as a historian of psychology followed the social media handle of AHPCZ and it is full of energy in publishing The Psychology First Aid course which I believe it derives financial gains. We believe that the same energy AHPCZ expends in advertising this basic paraprofessional program should be equally done in announcing important council business. Members of psychology deserve to know their council representation thus the full council, its chairpersons and respective education committee for what ever reasons they would want to know them. It is unfair that psychology is now deep into half of the year without knowing its representation and being told of paraprofessional courses offered by AHPCZ. It is now understandable why members from psychology want to be out of the AHPCZ, psychology cannot be led in such a directionless fashion with no urgency in weightier matters of the discipline.


Yours Truly


The Historian of Psychology
Prosper K Mushauri