Vuyani Jacobs

Item

fullName

Vuyani Jacobs

roleName

Primary

givenName

Vuyani

familyName

Jacobs

Biography

Vuyani Jacobs was a South African AIDS activist and counsellor best known for co-hosting (with Nombeko Mpongo) the third season of the HIV magazine series Siyayinqoba Beat It!, in 2002.

Jacobs tested positive for HIV early in the 1990s. Believing he didn't have long to live, he quit his job and spent his days at home watching television.

Channel hopping he came across a TV programme in which a beautiful African woman was speaking openly and with out fear about her HIV positive status. That show was Beat It! and it changed Vuyani's life.

He got off the couch and went in search of information around HIV/AIDS. He became a member of the Treatment Action Campaign, started taking ARVs and eventually ended up co-presenting a season of Beat It! with Nombeko Mpongo. He was later the programme director for Siyayinqoba Beat It!.

He later moved to Cape Town and worked as an organiser for the Treatment Action Campaign and became the Deputy Director of the Community Media Trust.

Vuyani died in June 2010.

Item sets

Site pages