Stella-Alet Botha studied medicine at the University of Stellenbosch were she graduated in 1999. She moved to the Netherlands in 2001 where she acquired her PhD degree in 2007 on the thesis “Assessment and determinants of disease progression in osteoarthritis at multiple sites.” (supervisors: Prof. Dr Ferdinand Breedveld and Prof. Dr Frits Rosendaal, Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Epidemiology at the Leiden University Medical Center). This was followed by specialization in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology (qualification in 2013) at the Leiden University Medical Center.

Since she returned to South-Africa in 2014, she is working as a consultant in the Department of Medicine and in the Division of Rheumatology of Groote Schuur Hospital/University of Cape Town.

Her current research interest is the assessment and treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), with a focus on comorbidities in RA. She is the principle investigator of the Meteor study at Groote Schuur Hospital: an international prospective observational study using an online application tool to monitor and assess treatment outcomes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and the Cape Rheumatoid (Early) Arthritis Therapy Evaluation (CREATE) study.

She is married and has 3 daughters