HEADLINE:   Mamisa Chabula

PUBLICATION: Star

PAGE NUMBER: 9

AUTHOR:     Zubeida Jaffer

DATE:       2001-03-08 13:18:40

Mamisa Chabula has left her children big shoes to fill

By Zubeida Jaffer

Port Elizabeth

Not only does she run one of the  biggest medical practices in Motherwell and is controversially known for her interventions in botched circumcisions, she is also a single parent to 10 children.

Dr Mamisa Chabula (54) is mother to five boys and five girls. Four children are well on their way to becoming medical doctors. Another four are completing degrees in commerce and two are still in high school. 

"Her footsteps are too big for us to follow," said her third youngest son, Gugu Nxiweni. "If we try to emulate her, we run out of energy."

Chabula left her husband, who is  an academic at a Transkei university, 13 years ago. She returned to her hometown of Port Elizabeth with only two certificates in her possession - her MB CHB certificate and her registration with the Medical and Dental Council. She had borrowed R100 for petrol and underwear and a dress from a friend.

Within six months, she set up her practice in Motherwell and then sent for her children.

Her children seldom saw her  because to feed, clothe and educate them, she worked from morning until late at night. Luckily for her, the children excelled at school. Two completed their BSc degrees before entering medical school. 

Chabula too had been a teacher before entering medical school. Her mother, a domestic worker, wanted her to be secure, and encouraged her to teach. Her father was a herbalist from Malawi. But she wanted to be a doctor. 

She had grown up poor, working as a domestic after school every day.

But excellent results led her to  Fort Hare University where she completed a BSc Honours degree. During that time, she married and had her first three children. She had her last two when she went to medical school a few years later. 

"I had no graduation without a swollen tummy," she laughed. "I wore a maternity dress at every graduation.

"I don't regret having these children," she said. "They fill my life. They are such good friends to me."

Often, she has had to rely on her  boys to fetch injured initiates from the veld. Her second oldest daughter, Lulekwa, is serving her medical internship and often works in her mother's busy practice.

"I think mom would have liked us all to be doctors," said Gugu.

"She loves medicine. I am sure  her dream is having a whole team assembled together - one of us the heart surgeon, another the paediatrician. But some of us are learning the business side, while the others practise medicine."

Chabula's family is known to be  closely knit and she attributes this partly to a game she introduced called "secret pals".

Every Christmas the children would draw names from a hat. That name would be their secret pal. They were only to disclose the name the following Christmas. 

They were expected to treat their pal well. Be considerate and kind and helpful. They also had the job of buying that pal a Christmas present. 

"If I were to do it all over again, I would live my life the same. It has been hard, but these children have been great."