NELI ZUMA: I used to cry and cry for days and now I am rocking my scars and I rock them with a smile.
NELI ZUMA: The day of the accident was on Friday. I was at work and we usually have
3 o’clock every Friday where everyone is just happy, laptops down, no one is working
and there was something fun to celebrate that day because I received good news the day before
that I actually got a job offer in California. It was me, Gonzo my friend and some other
two of my friends. We stayed over up until 11 o'clock at night which is something that
we have never done before. After that we decided to take the party at home and, on our way, Gonzo
was driving. I looked at him and I could see that he was falling asleep.
NELI ZUMA: I touched him because I panicked and said, ‘Gonzo!’ and then he woke up
and it was too late because by then I could see the wall and we just crashed the...
COMM: At just 23 years old, Neli was involved in a tragic car accident. Her friend Gonzo
who was driving the car was killed and Neli was left with serious internal bleeding.
NELI ZUMA: I remember waking up after three weeks in ICU and when I looked at myself;
my stomach was covered in plastic. They took the skin from my thigh so that they can put
on my tummy because my tummy was left open for a month. So it needed to be covered with something.
COMM: Before the accident, Neli had started modelling and so the scars she got as a result
of the accident hugely affected the way she saw herself.
NELI ZUMA: I had a colostomy bag for 10 months and it was not an easy journey. This is where
the colostomy operation was performed. Most of the time I was indoors. It was when I started
going outside and be exposed to the public and people started asking questions, ‘Why
do you have a tummy like that? And what is that thing on your tummy?’ This is my belly
button. They moved it from here to here. Yeah, it doesn’t look nice.
NELI ZUMA: They performed a skin graft. So they had to take meat from my thigh, my left
thigh and put it on my tummy. I remember writing on my diary, ‘No more happy Neli; no more
Neli with crop tops.’ And I started writing it down. That diary was supposed to be a positive
diary where I write things about myself. I said, ‘There is nothing positive I am going
to write about myself, right now.’
NELI ZUMA: It took me months and months until I actually realised that I need to find something,
no more self pity. So I decided to own it and take it and live it.
COMM: It was at this point that Neli decided to show the world that she wasn’t ashamed of her scars.
NELI ZUMA: I started calling a friend of mine who is a photographer and I said, ‘Can we
do this?’ I am willing to take pictures of myself with scars and just show it to people that I am back.
NELI ZUMA: The first picture that I posted on social media, I was actually shocked at
how people reacted to it. People started sharing it and they wrote comments about how brave
you are, you are such a tiny person but she is very brave and strong. And then I decided
that from there, I’ll post more pictures that will inspire people.
NELI ZUMA: I started creating my blog – writing down everything. This is where I vent out and
do all the crying. My point of my blog is to encourage people if ever you have scars
or you’ve got emotional struggles, write it all down and to keep it to yourself. It
really helped me a lot and people are actually responding to it.
JONATHAN OLIFF: Neli’s energy and her confidence and her personality definitely bring people together.
THEMBALISHA ZUMA: She doesn’t care what others think. What matters is how she feels
and what makes her happy.
NONO KHESWA: She is just an amazing child.
NELI ZUMA: It takes a lot to accept yourself. Do something that makes you happy. You need
to love yourself first and be gentle for yourself first before the outside world do the same thing to you.
NELI ZUMA: Scars are not a problem to me. The way I look at them is they give me a
reason to be happy. I have this second life.