Sibongile Simelane-Kuntana serves as a symbol of hope in the fight against the harm caused by gambling, transforming her personal experience into active support for families affected by addiction.
At 51, she heads the South African Responsible Gaming Foundation (SARGF), where she focuses on responsible gambling, treatment, and harm reduction, while also advocating for a stronger public health system response to the issue of addiction.
Simelane-Kuntana grew up in the village of Vukuzaxe in Volksrust, near the border of the KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga provinces, as the youngest of three children. The values instilled by her parents continue to influence her approach to life and work, with humility being particularly strong among them.
She noted that this value allowed her, in her leadership role, to create opportunities for unemployed youth who might have been at home struggling with self-realization. She welcomed people into the organization regardless of their experience, mentoring them and providing them with opportunities to learn.
Simelane-Kuntana emphasized that a person can be good, have everything, and then lose it if they lack humility or are arrogant. Her father also taught her that tears alone will not change circumstances, and she needs to take responsibility, work hard, and find a solution.
However, she also learned that resilience does not mean fighting every battle endlessly. She stated that one must know when to surrender, which taught her to understand when she had done everything possible.
Her decision to work in gambling harm prevention was shaped by her own family's experiences: her father struggled with alcohol dependency, and her brother battled drugs. As a child, she did not understand what addiction was or how to help.
Her personal experience inspired her desire to advocate for the interests of families who do not understand what is happening to their loved ones. Five years ago, she realized that SARGF needed more support for families affected by gambling harm, as the foundation lacked a social work department at the time.
She understood the importance of families, just as she understood how social work could help both individuals and families understand how addiction destroys family structures. The organization now has a fully functional social services department.
Among Simelane-Kuntana's achievements are the development and launch of National Responsible Gaming Month in November, the creation of SARGF's strategic plan, and the formation of its social wing. She has also managed to include data from public health and epidemiology science in the foundation's treatment and counseling protocol.
She holds an MBA obtained during the Covid-19 pandemic and is currently pursuing a doctorate at the University of Witwatersrand Graduate School of Business. Additionally, she has postgraduate qualifications in public administration and management, art historical knowledge, and a bachelor's degree in education.
Nevertheless, the gambling landscape is changing, especially with the rise of online betting. She is concerned that online betting has made gambling more accessible, more immediate, and easier to participate in at any time of day, while much of the associated harm remains hidden.
The helpline of the National Responsible Gaming Program has shown that people do not always contact the organization because they recognize they have a gambling problem. Some start with questions about accounts or online betting activity, which creates an opportunity to identify vulnerable individuals.
Simelane-Kuntana believes that one of the biggest misconceptions is that gambling cannot cause addiction. She asserts that gambling disorder is a recognized behavioral addiction that activates the brain's reward system just like alcohol or other substances.
In her view, those who seek counseling or treatment constitute only a small fraction of people suffering from gambling-related harm. She believes this is just the tip of the iceberg, and South Africa may be underestimating the scale of this problem.
She also insists that policy should react faster when people seek help, especially through the self-exclusion mechanism. In her opinion, a person requesting exclusion requires immediate 24/7 digital intervention. She believes that self-exclusion should be directly linked to counseling, treatment, and rehabilitation, rather than functioning as a standalone administrative process.
For Simelane-Kuntana, one of the most challenging tasks is balancing the demands of the roles of woman, mother, wife, and professional. She notes that juggling all of this is sometimes exhausting.
Her family and colleagues provide her with support; staff sometimes remind her to take a break from work. She says she receives immense support from colleagues who always urge her to close her laptop. Her main motivations remain her family and her work at SARGF.
For Simelane-Kuntana, Women's Month serves as a reminder that the work ahead for women is far from over. She questions the expectation that women must constantly demonstrate strength. She believes that the demand to be 'imbokodo'—one who fights until the end and never retreats—is sometimes unjustified.
She also feels that women too often oppose each other instead of recognizing their role in each other's lives. For her, leadership lies in creating opportunities, knowing how to listen, and using experience to improve support for people and families facing social difficulties. The lessons of her parents—humility, personal responsibility, and understanding that resilience also includes knowing when to retreat—remain central to her journey from the village of Vukuzaxe to leading a national organization.
