Walk of life: How an inspirational role model changes young lives in beloved Hillbrow

Tebogo Mabye – aka Tebza - grew up in the roughest part of Hillbrow. He came from a poor family, fell on hard times, lived on the street, spent years in a homeless shelter and fought against incredible odds to become a chef, barista, part-time model, kickboxing champ, 2024 MasterChef SA contestant and champion of the young people of Hillbrow.

“I see myself as a role model to the kids and teens there, showing them that it is possible to come out of a broken society and community, and make something of yourself,” Mabye says.

“I grew up as a weirdo. I was that light-skinned kid with freckles, taller than most of my peers and just interested in weird sports like karate and basketball. I grew up in a relatively poor family raised by a single-parent mother who struggled to make ends meet. This experience has encouraged me to be an overachiever and to excel in everything that I do.”

Last year, Mabye was the winner of Jozi My Jozi Walks – a community-led walking festival designed to give inner-city communities a chance to present their own take on their neighbourhoods. Mabye’s tour won the prize for the way it wove poignant stories and insights into the walk, showcased the good, the bad and the ugly, and shifted people’s perceptions about life in Hillbrow.

Mabye’s tour was called Hillbrewed – after the coffee shop he ran in Jewel City, Maboneng, which sadly closed after the pandemic. “Starting a coffee shop was one of my proudest achievements and I’m still looking for the right spot to reopen.”

The Hillbrewed walk began and ended at the BG Alexander building, a former nurses’ training college that fell into dereliction and was then transformed into a social housing complex by the Johannesburg Social Housing Company and the Madulammoho Housing Association.

“The whole tour was like taking a walk with my younger self,” Mabye says. MES (Mould, Empower, Serve) is the homeless shelter in Hillbrow where he spent many years, and it runs the social development and life skills programmes here.

“I wanted to highlight the amazing work they do, the goodness of their projects, such as indoor soccer, martial arts and Dance4aPurpose, and the positive ripple effects they have on the Hillbrow community.”

From here, the walk took in the historic Windybrow Arts Centre, where Mabye also spent time in his youth, and then went up Nugget Hill, one of the steepest hills in Jozi, past Pullinger Kop Park and Vannin Court, probably the most iconic hijacked building in all of Hillbrow. Wasn’t he scared? “No. This is my home,” says Mabye. “I grew up on these streets. People here know me and they see me doing positive things.”

Next stop was Joubert Park and the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), the most favourite haunt of Mabye’s youth. To the walkers’ delight, there was a flash mob of dancers who then joined in the rest of the walk. “We can’t let JAG or Joubert Park fall apart further,” he says. “The park is a connector in the neighbourhood. It has such historical significance. It could be the most amazing green space for the people of Hillbrow.”

Then the tour continued past the Mariston Hotel, IH Harris Primary School, where Mabye was a pupil, the Greek Orthodox Church, Irene Church, where MES began, and the old synagogue, which is now KwaMama, the Hillbrow branch of Revelation Spiritual Home. “This is really where my hustle started,” he says.

The tour looped back to the BG Alexander building and up to the rooftop, where hungry walkers enjoyed a meal made from one of Mabye’s famous recipes.

“My wish and hope for the youth of South Africa,” says Mabye, “is for us to do and be more, to dream more and to change more lives in the process and to never stop sharing our stories.” As 19th-century American poet and journalist Walt Whitman wrote: “Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.” DM

Bridget Hilton-Barber is a freelance writer who writes for Jozi My Jozi.

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.