“We must act on Diabetes now and Diabetes is not a Death Sentence”. These were the encouraging words from South Africa’s First Lady and Diabetes Ambassador Bongi Ngema-Zuma at the launch of the three Rotary Family Health Days (RFHDs) in Zandspruit Informal Settlement, north of Johannesburg.
“It is very encouraging to see that when NGO’s send proposals to launch programmes like the RFHDs, our health minister welcomes, applauds and supports those programmes,” said First-Lady Ngema-Zuma. Before 1994 and after, we blamed everyone and governments for anything that was not going well in our lives, I am here to say to everyone present here, we have no one to blame for diseases, sadly,” she added.
‘Nitjele abanye baye bayohlolwa’ – loosely translated to – tell others to come and get tested. There is really no excuse for us as a society to be ignorant about our health. My vision at the Bongi Ngema-Zuma (BNZ) Foundation which was established in 2010 is to see a South Africa where diabetes seizes to be a death sentence and people get tested and know their health issues”.
