Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - August 11, 2002
Shanthini Naidoo
Mpongo, 29, was raped five years ago. The attack changed her life. She ditched her reflexology studies and became a courageous counsellor to others with HIV.
Later this month she will share her bravery with television viewers as a presenter on a new show called Beat It! aimed at inspiring people who are HIV-positive.
She also works for the Cape Town council's HIV/Aids workplace programme and runs a support group from her neighbourhood church in KTC settlement on the Cape Flats.
"I'm happy people are going to see this face. People will know you can look good even if you've got HIV. As long as you hang on to that, you'll be fine," she said this week.
"I look at myself and look at other people, you just see that they need your help. I even forget that I am also infected. Others are sick and suffering."
The single mother said she managed to stay healthy by thinking positively.
"I always tell myself that I've got one life to live and I need to make every day special or no one else is going to do it for me.
"There are a lot of people that have more terrible things happening to them - people that can't sit and stand and work like me."
Mpongo admits that sometimes it's hard to look on the bright side.
Last week, in one day, she buried three friends who had died of Aids-related illnesses.
"I felt like we should all die - then the world would have no more people to infect others, but that is impossible," she said.
After the funerals, her health deteriorated slightly, and her white blood cell count dropped.
But she said bravely: "It's okay, I still look fine, these are just numbers!"
Beat It! aims to show that there are people living with HIV leading normal, productive lives.
Mpongo's zest for life is what caught the attention of the director and producer of Beat it! Jack Lewis, who cast her.
"We looked at a lot of people. We had met Nombeko while we were doing the programme and she was so great and forceful in the interview. We hauled her in for a screen test and she was just fabulous," he said.
Mpongo said: "I knew I was going to do it, because I was just going to be myself."
Vuyani Jacobs, Mpongo's co-presenter, who is also HIV-positive, said: "The thing that amazed me about her is that she came to realise that it wasn't her fault, and I haven't found that in many other victims.
"Some victims stay victims all their lives, but she's not a victim."
Mpongo said her hope for the show was that people would learn from her experiences.
"I know this will help people. If I knew when I got raped about antiretrovirals, I wouldn't have HIV. That's why, whatever happened to me, no matter how bad it is, I share with people - to warn them."
She also hopes to find better venues for meetings of HIV-positive people - at the moment she holds them at her church or in her tiny dining room.
"It's going to happen soon. I told myself I struggled with everything - I did washing to pay for my studies - and I survived all those things so I know I'm going to make it," she said.
Beat it! Your Guide to Better Living with HIV/Aids will be broadcast for 12 weeks, starting on August 13, on e.tv on Tuesdays at 4.30pm with repeats on Sundays at 11.30am.
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