Vuyiseka Dubula
Vuyiseka Dubula joined the TAC as a volunteer in 2001 shortly after finding out about her HIV positive status at the age of 22 years. She then became a TAC staff member in the position of Western Cape Treatment Literacy Coordinator in 2002. She has been very instrumental in the building of branches in the Western Cape; having founded several TAC branches and programmes.
She has remained committed to ensuring that People Living with HIV has a positive voice in the struggle against HIV, and that women and girls have access to health services and live equally in society free of gender-based and sexual violence. To this end, in 2003 she was acclaimed a “courageous leader” by the University of Oslo.
Vuyiseka then became the Western Cape Provincial Coordinator in 2006 and Coordinator of the National People Living with HIV Programme in 2007. She has also worked with Medicines Sans Frontiers South Africa, where she was an Adherence Community Mobilisation Officer and helped to develop adherence clubs for long term stable HIV patients in Khayelitsha. In 2008 she was then elected General Secretary of TAC, a position she currently holds.
In addition she holds many leadership roles in other structures including but not limited to the national representative for People living with HIV and AIDS in the South African National AIDS Council (2000SANAC), the chairperson of the AIDS Law Project (2000ALP) and a member of the advisory group for women and girls and HIV for the UNAIDS. She has presented and published at multiple national and international health and human rights conferences. She was nominated as one of The Mail and Guardian’s 300 top young South Africans in 2009.
The John M. Lloyd Foundation has recognized Vuyiseka’s tireless efforts and leadership in the HIV/AIDS and made her the recipient of the John M. Leadership Foundation award in March 2010 in Los Angeles. She is presently studying towards a Postgraduate Diploma in HIV/AIDS Management with the University of Stellenbosch and in addition is completing her BA Honours in Health Sciences and Social Services majoring in Psychology from the University of South Africa.
