DJ Sbu’s journey from poor boy to role model
THERE has not been a public sighting of the masked kwaito star Mzekezeke in years — but DJ Sbusiso Leope still will not own up to his controversial alter ego.
“Who said I was Mzekezeke?” said Leope when asked why the artist known for his trademark orange overalls and balaclava was not mentioned in a book about the DJ’s life.
Of course, in the minds of the public, they were always the same guy — especially as they were never spotted in the same place and both are from Tembisa on Gauteng’s East Rand.
But in an interview this week, the Metro FM DJ, dressed in a navy pinstripe jacket and designer jeans, laughingly said: “Mzekezeke was another guy.”
His alter ego may have faded into obscurity, but the 34-yearold Leope has been transforming lives through his Sbusiso Leope Education Foundation.
His book, Leadership 2020, is being launched at his inaugural Ekurhuleni leadership seminar, which will be held at Emperors Palace, east of Johannesburg, over several days this week.
Leope will share a stage with businessmen Robert Gumede and Cyril Ramaphosa, as well as Oprah Winfrey’s life partner, Stedman Graham.
The book is intended to motivate young South Africans. It reveals how, after he failed his first year at technikon twice, Leope ran away from home and worked as a door-todoor salesman.
He managed to save R4 000 from his sales job, which he used to re-enrol at the then Technikon Witwatersrand to earn a diploma in electrical engineering.
“If there is one thing I didn’t want to do, it was to disappoint my parents,” he said. “I needed a backup plan.”
About the book, he said: “I wanted to share my story. Even if no one tells you you’re a leader, you can be a leader.
“I wanted to show [youngsters] that I, too, started off in a small house and wore broken shoes to school. And now I can confidently wear suits and be proud of who I have become and where I come from.”
At his primary school, he said, “most of our classrooms had no windows or the windows were broken, but that didn’t stop us from going there”.
For a time he was raised by his single mother, but Leope credits his stepfather, Ludwick Molathlegi Leope, for playing a “significant, loving powerful father figure role in my life”.
“I have so much respect and love for my stepfather, who came into our lives and took care of us and raised me like his own child.”
Leope’s book includes essays by 12 business leaders on how they achieved success against the odds.
After finishing his diploma,
I wanted to show that I, too, started off in a small house and wore broken shoes
Leope worked at two community radio stations — and then the infamous Mzekezeke was born. The anonymous star was an instant success and raked in seven national music awards and 750 000 album sales.
Leope launched his education foundation eight years ago, and since then he has given more than 700 motivational talks at schools and funded hundreds of bursaries for poor matrics.
Sometimes, when hired to be the master of ceremonies at corporate functions, Leope would waive his fee and ask the company to fund a pupil instead.
He said people often assumed he had started the foundation to gain publicity.
But, he said, the reward came from knowing he was changing lives and, sometimes, getting an e-mail from a student telling him he or she had just graduated. “There’s no greater feeling than that.”