My school teacher gave me HIV’ 

‘My school teacher gave me HIV’

Zizipho* from Escort in KwaZulu-Natal fell in love with her teacher last year.

So she was devastated when she discovered she wasn’t the only pupil he was involved with.

But the worst was yet to come. Upon finding out he had been unfaithful, she went to get tested – and discovered she was HIV positive. 

Now, the 24-year-old tells her story:

“I am currently in matric and a very big fool. I feel in love with my teacher when I came to register last year and now I am paying the price.

About seven years ago I was doing matric and unfortunately I failed the year. I was discouraged by this so I decided to just start working instead.

By the time I turned 24 last year, I decided to leave my job so I could finish high school. The school I approached told me that I will have to start from grade 11 again. While at registration at this school, I met one of the teachers there and I instantly fell in love with him because he was so welcoming to me. He was 28.

I mentioned to him that I currently didn’t have a proper place to live and I was still looking. This was when he invited me to stay with him at his cottage while I looked around for a place of my own.

He was also trying to find me a school that would wouldn’t make me repeat grade 11 and I appreciated this very much. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find one so I ended up attending the school that he was teaching at.

While doing my grade 11 and living with him last year, and we began our relationship.

But then I found out I wasn’t the only pupil he was dating.

When I first found out that he was dating girls from my school, it broke me. The worst part was walking in on him in bed with another girl – twice.

At this point, I became concerned about my health because I began hearing rumours about his status so I asked him for us to go get tested for HIV. He refused to go with me so I just went by myself, only to find out that I was HIV positive.

My life completely fell apart. I felt it was the end of my life because it’s not an easy thing to deal with as I am still young.

I always think about how hard it would be to find love again because I’m scared of what a potential partner will say about my status and that it won’t be easy for someone to accept me with my status.

Sometimes I have sleepless nights and I just wish that I could open up to someone about it all and all that I have been through.

For my future I really hope that I will move forward and that I will be strong and I am hopeful that some days I can help young girls like me as well.”