From Homeless to MasterChef: Hillbrow's Hero Transforms Lives

Tebogo Mabye grew up on the toughest streets of Hillbrow, Johannesburg, sleeping in homeless shelters and wondering if life would ever get better. Today, he's a chef, MasterChef South Africa contestant, kickboxing champion, and the neighborhood hero showing kids they can rewrite their stories too.

Raised by a single mother in poverty, Mabye spent years at MES, a Hillbrow homeless shelter that runs life skills programs for at-risk youth. Instead of letting hardship define him, he used it as fuel to become what he calls "an overachiever" in everything from martial arts to opening his own coffee shop, Hillbrewed.

Last year, Mabye won Jozi My Jozi Walks, a community walking festival, with a tour that took residents through the heart of Hillbrow. The walk wasn't just about showing buildings. It was about changing minds.

Starting at the BG Alexander building, a transformed social housing complex, Mabye guided walkers past the MES shelter where he once lived, highlighting their soccer and martial arts programs. He led them up Nugget Hill, one of Johannesburg's steepest streets, past hijacked buildings and through Joubert Park to the Johannesburg Art Gallery, his favorite childhood escape.

"This is my home," Mabye says about walking through areas others fear. "People here know me and they see me doing positive things."

The tour ended on a rooftop where participants shared a meal made from one of Mabye's recipes. Between stops, he shared stories of growing up as the "weird kid" with freckles who loved karate and basketball, showing walkers that Hillbrow's young people deserve to see possibility, not just struggle.

The Ripple Effect

Mabye now mentors Hillbrow's youth, proving that coming from a broken system doesn't mean you stay broken. His award-winning tour shifted perceptions about a neighborhood too often defined by its challenges rather than its champions.

The programs at MES that once helped him now reach hundreds of young people through indoor soccer, martial arts, and Dance4aPurpose. The Windybrow Arts Centre and other community spaces Mabye showcased continue nurturing talent in kids who need to see someone who looked like them make it out and come back to help.

"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 make something of yourself," he says. His next dream is reopening Hillbrewed coffee shop, creating more opportunities for young people in his community.

Mabye's message to South Africa's youth carries the weight of lived experience: "Dream more and change more lives in the process and never stop sharing our stories."