To determine the natural history of visual deficiencies due to type 2 diabetes mellitus challenging with oxidant/antioxidant imbalance. We conducted cross-sectional, case-control, and cohort studies from hospital and community-based surveys. There were 50 controls non diabetics and 1094 type 2 diabetics. Short diabetes mellitus duration (<5 years in 50% cases) and aging (¿ 60 years) were associated with VD. We found 100% of no control of diabetes mellitus and deficiency in vitamin C, 99.3%, 98.7%, 83.3%, 79.3%, 71.8%, and 63.3% of deficiencies in vitamin D, E, Zinc, total antioxidant capacity, gluthation Peroxidase, and selenium respectively. VD were associated with high levels of Thiobarbituric acid (87.7%), Guanosine (76%), 8-Isoprostane (74.7%), GGT (6.7%), and oxidized-LDL (63.3%). Frequency of VD increased with proportion of phenotypes of DR defined by macular edema: 62.7% (n=84/134) in absence of DR and macular edema, 100% (n=35/35) in isolated DR, and 100% (n=31/31) in combined DR + macular edema phenotype. VD in Bantu type 2 diabetics showed a new biomolecular phenotype charactezised by oxidative stress.