Dr Michael Isabelle, the doctor who has was killed after a shooting at his Dobsonville, Soweto, practice at the weekend, had been a victim of an armed robbery at another practice of his about 20 years ago, a family spokesperson revealed.
Speaking to TimesLIVE Premium, Martin Phakathi said soon after qualifying as a doctor, Isabelle practised in Katlehong, Ekurhuleni, where he was attacked and shot in the stomach.
On Saturday, however, Isabelle was gunned down after three suspects entered the surgery under the pretence of needing medical assistance for their friend, said police.
“Once the receptionist let them inside the consultation room, they shot the doctor. They stole two cellphones before fleeing the scene,” said police spokesperson Col Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi.
We tried [to get] the practices to be under ADT or any other security company they could have, but it was converting the practices in Soweto into small prisons because patients have to start checking in at the gate, reception desk up to the consulting room
— Brenda Sibeko, spokesperson for Soweto Independent Practitioners Association
The doctor was taken to hospital and a case of attempted murder was opened.
“The charge will change to murder after the victim succumbed to his injuries this [Tuesday] morning,” said Nevhuhulwi.
Phakathi said Isabelle had suffered before at the hands of the same community he sought to serve. In July 2021 he was left distraught after looters broke into his practice at a shopping centre, ransacked, looted and burnt it down.
He said the doctor was distressed because for years he had treated grandmothers and grandfathers for free, but it was people from the same community who had ruined his practice.
But, still intent on serving, Isabelle rebuilt his practice in the same area.
Phakathi said Isabelle converted a free-standing house he had bought in the same township into a practice and continued serving patients.
“We could sense that he had not fully recovered from what had happened in 2021. It had hurt him a lot but he still wanted to serve. He seemed to be recovering from that trauma,” said Phakathi.
He said Isabelle had chosen to leave the shopping centre because of safety concerns and he and his family believed the new property would be safer.
“Unfortunately this happened in his surgery,” said Phakathi.
Describing Isabelle, Phakathi said he was “a jazz lover who was generous and principled. If there were bereavements in my family — when my dad and my mother passed on — he secretly would donate money. He would say, 'How much do you need?' Speak and he would help,” Phakathi added.
On his work ethic, Phakathi said Isabelle was uncompromising.
“He was extremely kind but firm. Strict, very protocol abiding which will be mistaken for being autocratic. He was a very principled person,” he said.
Outside his medical coat, Isabelle was a great jazz lover who would attend jazz offerings as a way to ease his mind. Pianist Abdullah Ibrahim was one of his favourites.
“He was a good participant of the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz. He was always there over the years,” Phakathi said.
As Isabelle’s family mourns him, so too are his patients. Phakathi said he had received messages from Isabelle’s patients conveying their condolences to the family.
Meanwhile, Brenda Sibeko, spokesperson for the Soweto Independent Practitioners Association, said the latest incident was painful, considering they had lost another doctor, George Koboka in a similar fashion.
He was shot dead in his surgery in 2022.
“It seems these guys are back in Soweto again,” Sibeko said.
She said after the murder of Koboka, they tried to ensure that their practices had strengthened security,
“We tried [to get] the practices to be under ADT or any other security company they could have, but it was converting the practices in Soweto into small prisons because patients have to start checking in at the gate, reception desk up to the consulting room.”
She said they tried on numerous occasions to work with police to rid the plight of attacks on doctors but it did not help them.
“Soweto doctors, we are on our own.”
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