Born in Umlazi South Africa, Bongi Ngema-Zuma is a South African Businesswoman. She was born on New Year’s Day and is the middle of six siblings, four sisters and two brothers. She started school in Umlazi and then moved to high school in Inanda – Ohlange and then came back to Umlazi to study at Mangosuthu Technikon. Thereafter she worked for insurance brokers and a banking institution. The majority part of her work experience has been in accounts, finance and investment in companies which include Investment Bank, Standard Chartered and Merchant Bank, Deloitte & Touche, IBM and JIC Mining Services.  She then decided to move to Johannesburg in 1989. She established the Bongi Ngema-Zuma Foundation in 2010; a registered Non-Profit Organisation with a vision of seeing a South Africa where diabetes ceases to be a killer due to lack of awareness, by supporting and helping people take control of diabetes. The foundation is the living embodiment of First Lady of the Republic of South Africa, Madam Bongi Ngema-Zuma’s passion to create awareness about diabetes – a fulfillment of her vision that no person should die because of lack of awareness about diabetes.

She has a Diploma in Marketing and a Business Administration Bachelor’s degree. In 2012 she married President Jacob Zuma, becoming his fourth wife.