08/01/2026
When we first met Sithembile, she joined the interview while hiking a trail near Krugersdorp. Just that moment already challenged a common bias: the idea that people living with obesity do not like moving or being active. She loves the outdoors. She loves being busy. But her body has not always allowed her to live the way she wants to.
From high school, weight was a constant battle. Her first diet was as a teenager. Since then she has tried almost everything: low-carb plans, intermittent fasting, working with dietitians, HCG injections, Saxenda, pushing herself harder at the gym, even periods of near-starvation. Each time the pattern repeated: some weight lost, then more weight gained back.
By the time she came to the Obesity Health Centre, she was living with high blood pressure, raised cholesterol, allergic reactions and was already pre-diabetic, with a strong family history of diabetes. She was successful in her IT career and as a mom of three, but felt she was “failing” at her own body, despite doing everything that is usually prescribed.
Her research for her mother’s diabetes led her to bariatric surgery. She learned it was not cosmetic, but a well-studied treatment that can dramatically improve health. Two barriers held her back: worries about fasting for religious reasons, and the simple fact that R170 000 was completely out of reach.
This is where the Obesity Community Fund enters her story.
Follow this space to see what happened next.
