Unani-Tibb is a Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) profession formally regulated by the Allied Health Professions Council of South Africa (AHPCSA). Tibb is a fairly new profession in South Africa, only formally recognised since 2007 resulting in the majority of practitioners being young people from the Millennial generation. It was observed that Tibb Practitioners are very successful as professionals while working within the confines of the Tibb Medical Centres, but as soon as they venture out into private practices, they seem to be unable to create financially viable entities. Research was embarked upon to determine what factors impacted directly on the entrepreneurial sustainability of Tibb Healthcare Practitioners. Exploratory qualitative research was used by collecting data through semi-structured interviews. A pilot study was conducted with three participants followed by interviewing 16 respondents. The findings were analysed by means of inductive thematic analysis using NVIVO and SPSS software. The findings indicate that the majority of Tibb Healthcare Practitioners interviewed are from the Millennial generation, female and working for a big organisation instead of being in private practice. It is concluded that the generation of the Tibb Healthcare Practitioners plays a huge part in their inability to venture out into and create financially sustainable private practices. The reasons for this are varied, but spirals from the fact that the Millennial Generation need step-by-step instructions on how to become successful in business. This will only happen if they are taught entrepreneurship and business skills while encouraging a paradigm shift from a job seeking mentality to a job creation mentality.

Unani-Tibb is a Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) profession formally regulated by the Allied Health Professions Council of South Africa (AHPCSA). Tibb is a fairly new profession in South Africa, only formally recognised since 2007 resulting in the majority of practitioners being young...