By Cheryl Roberts
Growing up in a sports family rooted in District Six and on the Cape Flats, Natheema Isaacs was a rugby supporter. Today, she is very much involved in rugby, not just as a supporter and fan but as a vital element in high-performance rugby as a medical practitioner.
Dr Isaacs, from Walmer Estate, is the team doctor for Western Province women’s rugby team, a position she has held for the past three seasons. Recently, she took on the appointment as team doctor for the Western Province men’s u20 team.
“I didn’t play rugby, but I was born into a family that loved and played rugby. My father, Makkie Isaacs, was from the non-racial Saru-affiliated Violets Rugby Club, and of course, I got into knowing about rugby from my earliest days. My first overseas trip was as an 8-year-old with a rugby club.
“That was when Violets Rugby Club went to Malaysia, and our family went with,” recalls Isaacs about her memories of her involvement with the game she loves.
“When I was a medical student, I started helping out as a first aid volunteer at club rugby matches for Violets Rugby Club and other clubs. I enjoyed that very much. After completion of my studies, I came back to the rugby field qualified and able to deliver medical expertise. I’m enjoying that, too.”
Natheema, schooled at Rustenburg Girls’ High School and having completed her medical studies at UCT, says she loves being a woman in sport, not as a high-performance player or athlete, but as a contributing element to team and player medical and health development and performance.
She doesn’t work full time in rugby as she’s a full-time medical practitioner, but makes her contribution to rugby after work hours.
She doesn’t make this contribution because of money but for her love and passion of participating in sport and offering expertise and support when and where she can, especially to girls and women in sport.
Natheema’s family has its roots in anti-apartheid and post-apartheid rugby. Her father was a rugby player and official of Violets Rugby Club, which sponsored a massive annual community rugby festival on the Cape Flats – the Top 8 held at City Park rugby ground.
Coming into the era that ushered in a post-apartheid South African society, non-racial rugby was also very much involved in assisting Nelson Mandela’s release from prison.
The Toyota Cressida that drove Mandela away from the prison gates was owned by rugby player Makkie Isaacs of Violets Rugby Club.
As a woman in sport and a medical practitioner, Natheema Isaacs was very committed to the health and medical care of the team and players and gives her best attention when attending to players and teams.
She’s also fully aware of the social inequalities impacting on players, girls and women in rugby, and assists voluntarily and, when needed to, at her own expense, to tend to a player’s medical needs.
“Not all players can afford physiotherapy and scans and doctor’s fees. We must be aware of the social lives of players and be aware of those who cannot afford the luxury of private medical care.
“If we can help here and there with our expertise and money, we should try and do so,“says Isaacs, a young doctor who is not all about charging fees for assistance and consultation.
“I come from a background of involvement in rugby, where I saw players sharing food, being sharing friends and teammates and volunteer coaches and officials giving their time for free to develop community and club rugby.”
Natheema loves being a woman in sport, and assisting women in sport.
She feels for the working-class girls and women who struggle to get to training because of transport costs. She tries to provide assistance when she can and wants to see the sports paradigm of financial assistance tilted in favour of women’s sports, especially rugby, so the women’s game can grow much more and involve more girls and women in playing the game.
To enhance her sports medicine information and expertise, she is specialising in sports medicine through post-graduate studies at the University of Stellenbosch.
“Rugby is growing in popularity in communities, and funding and sponsorship is needed to sustain the growth of the women’s game.
“We also need more women coaches, women medical personnel and women officials who will be there for the women players in rugby,” says Isaacs.
Today, Isaacs is currently a team doctor at provincial level. However, she could soon be higher up, serving South African national rugby teams. Appointment as team doctor of the women Springboks should surely be coming her way soon.
After all, she’s a woman doctor and one who would be an appropriate addition to the women’s Springbok rugby team.
* Roberts is a sport activist.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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