Actress Lesego Motsepe, who is best known as Letti in Isidingo, dropped a bombshell on world aids day on popular ratio station Kaya FM.
Motsepe revealed she’s been living with HIV for 13 years on air as part of an awareness-raising initiative for World Aids Day.
The actress is part of a non-profit organisation, Afrikarize, which is creating new conversations on HIV/Aids as well as tackling socio-economic challenges facing the youth.
Motsepe, who played the character Letti between 1998 and 2008, said that when she found out she was HIV-positive 13 years ago, she wasn’t really shocked. This was because she had been working as an Aids ambassador for years, using puppets to teach children about the virus.
Suddenly, all the things she had been talking about became relevant in her own life.
Nevertheless, the news was life-changing.
“I went through many phases: denial, resentment, rejection and anger,” Motsepe said. “But the most important thing is that I am alive today.”
When people found out about her status, they “just hug me. They can hear in my voice I am not weak. But it has taken a lot of work, a lot of energy, to be where I am today,” Motsepe said.
She advised South Africans to know their status.
“If it’s positive, do something about it. Don’t dig your grave because you are still alive,” she said.
The actress said that she has been on antiretrovirals for just more than a year.
Recounting that her CD4 count was just 99 in October last year, she said she had been close to death’s door.
“For seven weeks, I was down. To be able to pick myself up from that and say I am going to live is something,” Motsepe said.
She said she had to be her own coach and change the way she lived. She had to stop drinking – she used to drink a lot of alcohol – and also has to watch her diet.
“It affects a lot. If I have a headache, I can’t take a headache pill. If my stomach is woozy, I can’t take anything. I can’t take anything that would interfere with the antiretrovirals,” she said.
“I decided that if I was going to live, I would not let this get me down. I don’t say I’m HIV-positive, I say HIV lives in my blood.”
She said it took 13 years to share with others that they, too, can do it.
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I hope the best for you,
Hi, Celebraties obviously play a role in our society, but they are also just normal human beings in a JOB like you and me and i believe the reason they are too scared to live an honest life e.g revealing their status is because we put them on unnecessary pedestals. i aplaude Lesego cause by so doing she is setting herself free to live her life as honest as posible and to live for herself and not the world. We as people that watch them we know and can see any and every change that they go through so if you are honest people get over it and you move on with your life. Sis Lesego GOD is upon your life just trust and be happy for you not anyone else.
Take heart you are couragegious, i pray you get stronger daily.
There are people who have gone from HIV + to HIV + with a wellness program from Tine van der Maas. My best friend had sexual relationship with a HIV + woman and continued to test negative after he found out. He has tests before and after she told him her status. She was on ARV drugs for 6 years and stopped taking it and it’s no been a year and she’s still healthy and getting better.
I love Lesego so much and I used to enjoy Isindigo because I liked the way she acted…she was very much talented. However, 13 years is so much for a lady to keep such a big secret, it was quite courageous since one could never tell even through watching her that there was something going within her. You are really an inspiration to us and I congratulate you for doing this my darling, not only for your sake but also for the sake of the entire nation which after all these years is still ignorant about the reality of being HIV+ and living with it.