From a small village in Tzaneen to crowded international football stadiums as doctor for South Africa’s women’s national football team, Banyana Banyana, Dr Nthabiseng Maesela has proved that anything is possible.

An alumna of Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU), Maesela has now graduated with an MSc in sports medicine at the University of Pretoria. Her achievements exemplify the transformative power of combining rigorous academic training with real-world application.

Whilst completing her studies, Maesela served as team doctor for Banyana Banyana during the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

She also supported youth development programmes, working with the U16 Men’s National Team in Poland and the U17 Women’s National Team, demonstrating the versatility emphasised by UP’s curriculum.

Maesela also established herself as an innovative entrepreneur, co-founding the Optimum Sports and Wellness Institute in Polokwane and becoming managing director of CB Health Solutions, which operates the University of Johannesburg Sports Clinic.

Her mini-dissertation addressed critical contemporary concerns in sports medicine regarding concussion symptoms, cognitive function, and balance in university athletes, contributing valuable evidence-based research to the field.

Maesela’s current role as medical commissioner for the Limpopo Academy of Sports reflects her

progression from student to leader. Her international credentials include selection as team doctor for Team South Africa at the 2025 FISU World University Games in Germany, FIFA diploma in Football Medicine, and World Rugby certifications.

“Dr Maesela represents everything we strive to achieve in our MSc Sports Medicine programme. Her ability to excel simultaneously in academic pursuits and international professional practice demonstrates the calibre of leaders our programme produces. She embodies our vision of developing sports medicine professionals who advance the entire discipline,” Professor Christa Janse van Rensburg, head of sports medicine at UP said.

The faculty of health sciences, in congratulating her on her graduation, said her journey validates UP’s Sports Medicine programme’s global standing and exemplifies its success in producing leaders who advance professional standards from local clinics to international sporting arenas.

In an earlier interview with SMU about her love for medicine and her beginnings, Mohlahlereng said that she was born in Mohlahlereng and raised in Burgersfort before relocating to Lephalale and eventually Polokwane.

Maesela’s path to medicine was inspired from an early age. “My journey into medicine was your typical ‘what do you want to be when you grow up’ story – and the answer was always ‘a doctor’”, she told SMU.

She enrolled at the University of Limpopo’s Medunsa Campus in 2012, calling it “the beginning of everything”. It was during her internship that Maesela discovered sports medicine.

Her career reached a defining moment in 2023 when she received a call-up to support Banyana Banyana in their preparations for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

zelda.venter@inl.co.za

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