…HIV status is not your identity…
…Nozibele’s 13-year journey…
…A call to break stigma…
…Countdown to the eswatini launch…
BY NELIWE NGUBANE
MBABANE – The countdown is officially on, and with only a few weeks and days separating Eswatini from a powerful encounter with a woman whose HIV journey has become a story of courage, healing and hope, people living with HIV are being encouraged to show up and hear Nozibele Mayaba’s story for themselves
Mayaba will be in the Kingdom for the “Let Me Tell You Something” Book Launch, set to take place at Manzini Metropolitan Evangelical Church, through Destiny Music and Destiny Events.
Her story stretches beyond the diagnosis itself. It is a story about confronting fear, finding identity beyond HIV and refusing to allow stigma to dictate the future.
At just 22 years old, Mayaba remembers the day she was diagnosed with HIV as a moment when everything seemed to change.
“I remember leaving that appointment feeling as though the ground beneath me had shifted,” she recalls.
At the time, questions about her dreams, relationships, faith and future weighed heavily on her. Yet, 13 years later, the woman who once feared that her diagnosis had brought her story to an end now describes it as the beginning of a much bigger journey.
“Looking back now, I wish I could tell that young woman that the story wasn’t ending, it was only beginning,” she says.
Her testimony carries particular weight for people living with HIV who continue to face judgement, discrimination and the pressure to hide their status.
Rather than presenting HIV as something that should define a person, Mayaba’s journey demonstrates the importance of seeing the individual beyond a diagnosis. Her experience speaks to anyone who has ever been made to feel that a difficult chapter makes them less worthy of love, dreams, success or happiness.
She describes learning to laugh again without guilt, make plans without being controlled by fear and understand that her identity was not found in her diagnosis, but in who God created her to be.
For people facing HIV-related stigma, her openness offers another perspective: a diagnosis does not erase a person’s dreams, humanity or potential.
Mayaba also speaks openly about the transformation of pain into purpose. The story she once felt compelled to hide eventually became a source of encouragement for others.
“She would discover that vulnerability has the power to heal, not only herself, but others too,” she says of her younger self.
Her Eswatini visit therefore comes at a time when conversations around HIV, stigma, self-worth and healing remain important. Through her book and personal testimony, Mayaba is creating space for people to confront difficult experiences while choosing hope over shame.
She credits God for carrying her through seasons she did not understand and says the anniversary of her diagnosis is now less about what happened to her and more about everything that happened afterwards.
“Thirteen years later, I realise that this anniversary is not a reminder of what happened to me. It is a reminder of everything that happened after,” she says.
The message is ultimately one of life beyond fear — a reminder that people living with HIV remain capable of dreaming, loving, growing and finding purpose.
As Mayaba prepares to share her story with Eswatini, her words invite audiences not simply to hear an HIV story, but to see the human being behind it.
“I celebrate the fact that I am still here,” she says.
And in those words lies the heart of her journey: I Am Still Me.
The book launch will feature Atsinemalangeni Dlamini and Gugu Lin, with the event presented by Destiny Music and Destiny Events.
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