Team
SPORTS PHYSIOTHERAPIST & EXERCISE SCIENTIST
Dr. Nonhlanhla Mkumbuzi (Sports physiotherapist and Exercise Scientist)
Nonhlanhla is a sports physiotherapist and exercise scientist based at Health through Physical Activity, Lifestyle, and Sports Research Centre (HPALS) at the University of Cape Town. In addition to being a physiotherapist, she is a specialist in Exercise Physiology and has a PhD in Exercise Science.
Dr. Mkumbuzi has worked as a sports physiotherapist for various sports teams from various sports codes, performance levels and across all age groups. She started her career as an intern at Gunners Football Club in Zimbabwe’s Premier Soccer League. Her clinical career has since included appointments as the team physiotherapist for many of Zimbabwe’s national teams such Senior Women’s Netball, Senior Women’s Football (Mighty Warriors); Youth football (Young Warriors); 7s rugby (Cheetahs, Lady Cheetahs); 15s rugby (Sables), the 2016 Rio Olympics team and many others.
She currently splits her time between teaching/ training exercise science students; lab-based research. Here, her focus is on understanding female athlete biology (namely the menstrual cyle), how it influences injury risk, and how it interacts with the athletes’ socioeconomic and religio-cultural environments in the athletic environment. She is also engaged in a variety of field-based studies research in women’s football with FIFA. Nonhlanhla has many publications in international, scientific journals and her fields of expertise include chronic tendon injuries and women’s football.
SPORTS & EXERCISE MEDICINE PHYSICIAN
Dr. Masi Njawaya (Sports and Exercise Medicine Physician)
Dr Masi’s vision is for more women to be healthier, physically active and to feel good about themselves. Dr Masi uses a lifestyle medicine approach to help recreational and competitive women and girls in sport of all ages and stages enjoy a physically active life through her guidance. In so doing, she helps them meet their goals and achieve success, recover from musculoskeletal injuries and improve their medical conditions so they can continue to be physically active.
Dr. Masi has been team doctor for a variety of sports teams from grassroots to elite level, including different codes of rugby (working with South Sydney Rabbitohs RLFC, Sydney University FC Colts, Eastern Suburbs RUFC, Mounties RLFC, North Sydney Bears RLFC, A- & Women’s League Football and Aussie Rules Football), international tennis events, endurance events, judo, and boxing.
SPORTS SCIENTIST/COACH
Daneil Fieldmann (Sport Scientist/Coach)
Passionate about health and fitness, Daneil has a Master’s degree in Exercise Science and has recently completed her PhD thesis with a focus on the genetics of soft tissue injuries in sporting populations.
Living her passion, Daneil is a competitive runner who has competed at various local and international events. Further, she is a personal running coach, with a particular interest in the physical and mental health and wellness of sportswomen.
SPORTS SCIENTIST/COACH
Khanyile Dlamini (Sports Scientist/Coach)
Khanyile is a sport scientist with many years of experience in strength and conditioning in the sports industry. She has worked with men’s and women’s teams in football, cricket, athletics at provincial, national and International level.
Khanyile has a Master’s degree in Sports Science from the University of Kwazulu Natal, South Africa, which focused on the influence of socioeconomic status on physical activity behaviour in school going adolescents.
She currently divides her time as an academic in the Department of Sports and Coaching Science at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Zimbabwe as well as a FIFA strength and conditioning coach for football referees in Southern Africa.
SOCIAL SCIENTIST
Thobekile Mkumbuzi (Social scientist)
Thobekile has a Bsc (Hons) Sociology from the University of Zimbabwe. She has engaged with different stakeholders advocating for enhanced access to reproductive health services and information for adolescent girls especially adolescent girls with disabilities. She has also worked with young girls in unpacking and addressing how dominant societal ideologies and values perpetuate social inequalities, especially in sport. Thus, her main focus is to understand socio-cultural and socio-economic contexts of women and girls in sport and how these contexts can inform all initiatives aimed towards improving their health and performance. As well as explore the interrelated experiences of women and girls in sport of different ethnicities, age, race and ability, and how these experiences can assist in the planning and implementation of initiatives meant for them.
She is currently involved in efforts to intensify the promotion of female sports especially in African traditional spaces where the alliance between sterotypically ‘feminine’ attributes and sports are often seen as incompatible.
PSYCHIATRIST & MENTAL HEALTH EXPERT
Dr. Chido Rwafa- Madzvamutse (Psychiatrist and Mental Health Expert)
Chido has worked as a mental healthcare provider in the public and private sectors for many years. Her main aims in practice are to reduce the stigma towards mental health issues as well as improve accessibility to mental healthcare.
Dr. Chido is a medical doctor with a Master’s in Medicine degree in Psychiatry from the University of Zimbabwe as well as postgraduate qualifications in Mental health.
Her special interests in practice are in mental health care in various workplaces such as in the sporting industry. Additionally, she focuses her practice on women’s mental health across the lifespan, where she uses an African woman lens in developing clinical management strategies that are relevant to her clients’ circumstances and lived experiences.
BIOMEDICAL SCIENTIST AND RESEARCHER
Senanile Dlamini (Biomedical Scientist and Researcher)
Senanile Dlamini is a Biomedical Scientist with research experience spanning Human Genetics, Physiology and Sports Medicine.
She is currently studying for a PhD in Physiology with the University of Cape Town, South Africa where her focus is on the use of bioinformatics and big data analytics to identify candidate genes and loci linked to common sports injuries such as chronic Achilles tendinopathy and anterior cruciate ligament rupture.
Senanile is involved in a number of field-based FIFA funded research studies in African women’s football.