Letshego Zulu Opens Up About Gugu, Kilimanjaro and Life Now

Photo Credit: Letshego Zulu

She went back to Kilimanjaro a year after losing Gugu Zulu and reached the summit in his honour… but that climb was only one part of Letshego Zulu’s extraordinary journey forward.

South Africa (09 September 2026) – Gugu Zulu was my friend. I still consider him my friend. Ten years after we lost Gugs on Mount Kilimanjaro, I finally got the opportunity to sit down with Letshego Zulu and talk about that mountain, the man we both loved, the years that followed and the incredible life she has built since.

This week on Good Things with Brent Lindeque, Letshego joined me for a conversation I have wanted to have for a very long time. We have known each other for years, but this was the first time we had really spoken about what happened on Kilimanjaro in 2016, what came after it and where life has taken her in the decade since.

A year after losing Gugs on that mountain, Letshego made the extraordinary decision to go back. She returned to Kilimanjaro, completed the climb and reached the summit in his honour. But coming down from the mountain was only the beginning of another journey, figuring out how to pick up the pieces and build a life after losing the person she had planned to share it with. That journey would eventually become her deeply personal memoir, I Choose to Live: Life After Losing Gugu, but choosing to live has also become something Letshego has done in so many ways since.

An entrepreneur, author, motivational speaker, MC, qualified biokineticist and passionate endurance athlete, Letshego has built a career spanning wellness, business, media and motivational speaking. She has taken on the Comrades Marathon, Two Oceans Ultra Marathon, Absa Cape Epic, joBerg2C, Ironman 70.3 and Cape Town Cycle Tour, while many South Africans will also remember her as the runner-up on Survivor South Africa: Maldives and a finalist on Fear Factor South Africa.

But this conversation isn’t really about a list of achievements. It is about life.

We speak about Gugs and Kilimanjaro but we also speak about who Letshego is now: running, cycling, being a mom, inspiring other women, taking on new challenges and continuing to find adventure wherever she can. We talk about what the past ten years have taught her, how life has changed and what it means to keep moving forward while still carrying someone you loved with you. Ten years later, Letshego’s story is not just about what happened on a mountain. It is about everything that came afterwards, everything she has built, every finish line she has crossed and all the life she continues to choose.

She’s also just a really lekker South African and I am so grateful we finally got to have this conversation.

Gugs would be incredibly proud of her. I know I am.

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