Every empire
is built brick by brick.
DJ Sbu — Son of the soil, Father, Cultural icon, marketing genius, serial entrepreneur, musician, DJ, radio legend, podcast pioneer, best selling author, property developer, international inspirational speaker & philanthropist.
An African youth icon, brick by brick
Since 2001, the DJ Sbu brand has been a defining force in shaping youth culture and thought leadership across South Africa. Rising from a challenging upbringing in Tembisa, he built a national media career that has reached millions, establishing himself as one of the country's most versatile and influential media personalities first through music and entertainment, and later expanding across radio, television, publishing, business and podcasting.
His first venture, TS Records, co-founded in 2001 with business partner TK Nciza, served as the launchpad for some of South Africa's most celebrated recording artists. As executive producer, he played a pivotal role in the success of Prokid, Nhlanhla Mafu, Mzekezeke, Ntando, Mapaputsi, Brickx, Brown Dash, Izinyoka, Riot, Lungelo, Zahara, and his own DJ Sbu projects — cementing TS Records as a cornerstone of the South African music industry.
Giving back to the youth of Africa
DJ Sbu speaks at schools across South Africa, awards scholarship bursaries through the Sbusiso Leope Education Foundation (SLEF), and offers mentorship to college and university students. Through his educational services company Leadership 2020, he runs entrepreneurship short courses, networking seminars, conferences and workshops for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Keynotes & stages
DJ Sbu is a sought-after public speaker, keynote address and serial entrepreneur who has shared stages with global icons and headlined institutions on three continents.
He has delivered two keynotes at Harvard Business School (2016 & 2018), and spoken at MIT, Stanford University and the University of Westminster. He has also hosted award shows, gala dinners, summits, conferences and seminars around the world.
Global icons & leaders
Richard Branson, Robert Kiyosaki, Robin Sharma, Stedman Graham, Tony Robbins, Les Brown, Dr Myles Monroe, President Cyril Ramaphosa and President Jacob Zuma — among other greats from across the world.
Nine verticals, one builder.
Every brand DJ Sbu has laid down, from the recording booth to the boardroom to the building site.
TS Records
Radio
Television
The Hustlers Corner SA Podcast
MOFAYA
Powernomics Africa
Author
SLEF
Mzakes Kitchen
Awards & records
Keynotes & Stages
Work with Sbu
TS Records
Founded at 21 years old, TS Records became one of the defining independent labels in South African music — discovering artists and building them into brands in their own right.
Brown Dash
DJ Sbu
Ntando
Mzekezeke
Brickx
Riot
Nhlanhla Mafu
ProKid
Zahara
A career made on air
From a graveyard slot in Tembisa to Africa's biggest breakfast shows — a radio history that runs parallel to the story of South African radio itself.
216 hours on air
During the Massiv Metro era, DJ Sbu set a Guinness World Record for the longest music radio show marathon — 9 days, 216 hours, live on air.
Radio Host Timeline
Stations, shows and milestones from the first broadcast in Tembisa to the return on Radio 2000.
Voice of Tembisa
Where the career started, before radio took him anywhere else.
Runner-up, Yfm Tropika Voice of the Future
Worked the graveyard slot, then stood in for established DJs, before landing his own afternoon drive show, YLens — later released as an award-winning album, YLens Vol. 1, with skits featuring Skhova, Solly Vista, Kharas MaFashion, Faith Mangope and Trevor Zungu.
Ukhozi FM — EBS: Ezasekseni Breakfast Show
An award-winning morning breakfast show on Africa's biggest radio station, reaching roughly 7 million listeners.
Unfinished Business
Came back to host Yfm's No. 1 morning breakfast show.
Metro FM — The Sound Revival
Recruited to South Africa's largest commercial radio station. Hosted The Entrepreneur, a feature bringing on the millionaires and billionaires who shaped his own path into business, and released a Sound Revival album series.
Fired, live, in Durban
Promoted his new MOFAYA Energy Drink on stage at the Metro FM Music Awards, live on national television — and was let go from Metro FM as a result. The moment became the origin story of a business, not the end of one.
Pioneering South African podcasting
Launched his own online radio station, standing alongside Gareth Cliff (CliffCentral) and TBO Touch (TouchCentral) as one of the pioneers of podcasting in South Africa. Set a Guinness World Record for the longest radio broadcast — 9 days, 216 hours, live on air.
Radio 2000 — Big Breakfast Show
Returned to radio after almost a decade away, hosting the Big Breakfast Show on Radio 2000. Tune in at radio2000.co.za .
From the game show floor to the boardroom
Two very different television eras: mainstream entertainment on SABC1, then business television built to speak to a different kind of viewer.
Friends Like These
South Africa's No. 1 TV game show, hosted for 15 seasons on the country's biggest channel.
Kicking Doors with Sbu Leope
A business show built to speak to entrepreneurship, leadership and empowerment across Africa — 52 episodes, broadcast in South Africa and Tanzania.
The Hustlers Corner SA Podcast
Built on the same instinct that started Massiv Metro — long-form, unfiltered conversation with entrepreneurs, artists and thinkers, distributed straight to the audience.
Youth leadership & speaking
Alongside the podcast, Leadership 2020 carries the same message into schools and youth audiences directly, extending the entrepreneurial mentorship DJ Sbu has hosted on air since Metro FM's "The Entrepreneur."
MOFAYA
Co-founded in 2014 with business partner Siphiwe Likhuleni Shongwe, MOFAYA Energy Drink has grown over more than a decade into one of South Africa's most recognised homegrown energy drink brands — the same brand whose on-air launch cost DJ Sbu his job at Metro FM.
An energy drink born from a headline
On 28 February 2015, DJ Sbu took the stage at the Metro FM Music Awards in Durban and promoted MOFAYA live on national television. It ended his radio contract that night — and gave the brand a launch moment no marketing budget could buy.
Two founders, one energy drink.
MOFAYA Energy Drink is a South African-owned beverage business built on high-energy marketing, grassroots distribution and an unapologetically local brand voice. Since 2014 the company has grown from a single launch moment into a national brand stocked in stores, spaza shops and events across the country.
Sbusiso Leope WeNkosi
DJ Sbu drives the brand voice, national marketing campaigns and the public-facing energy that turned MOFAYA into a household name.
Siphiwe Likhuleni Shongwe
The business partner who co-founded MOFAYA in 2014 and continues to steer operations, distribution partnerships and long-term growth.
Powernomics Africa
Five years into real estate, with four developments under construction across Gauteng — two 30-unit townhouse projects and two standalone-house developments — before moving into a flagship legacy project on ancestral land.
Greenhills
Ngonyama Lifestyle Estate
Greengate Lifestyle Estate
Ebukhosini Estate, Moretele
500 apartments and 200 standalone houses on ancestral farmland in Moretele Municipality, Bojanala District, Tshwane North — turned into a residential development for investors, on land where the family's elders rest.
Ebukhosini Royal Golf & Resort
A golf and nature eco-estate development, and the legacy centrepiece of the Ebukhosini vision.
Words, laid brick by brick
Four published books turning three decades of hustle — in music, media and business — into a curriculum anyone can pick up.
Leadership 2020: The Beginning
Billionaires Under Construction
The Mindset of an Entrepreneur
The Art of Hustling
Sell Or Surrender
Brick By Brick
The Entrepreneur's Guide to Property Wealth
Born For Purpose: Becoming A King
SLEF — Sbusiso Leope Education Foundation
The vertical that puts everything else to work for the next generation: bursaries, scholarships, feeding schemes, and motivational talks delivered in person.
A digital food business, in kwaito's honour
Named for the legendary kwaito artist Mzekezeke — signed to TS Records — Mzakes Kitchen carries that legacy into an online food business, DJ Sbu's most direct-to-consumer venture yet.
Awards & records
SA Music Awards — Song of the Year
SA Music Awards — Artist of the Year
SA Music Awards — Artist of the Year
SA Music Awards — Song of the Year
TV Presenter of the Year
Metro FM Music Awards — Song of the Year
SA Music Awards — Song of the Year
SA Music Awards — Album of the Year
SA Music Awards — Remix of the Year
SA Mzansi Awards — Breakfast Radio Show of the Year
GQ Best Dressed Male in South Africa
Forbes — 1 of 13 Young Africans to Watch in 2013
Mail & Guardian — 200 Brilliant Young South Africans
Sunday Times — Coolest Brands
Future Leaders Awards — SA Role Model of the Year
ANN7 SA Stars Awards — Spirit of Humanity
Vuka Awards — SA's Most Inspirational Entrepreneur
BET Africa — Humanitarian of the Year
South Africa Trailblazer of the Year
South African Entrepreneur of the Year
Guinness World Record — Longest Music Radio Show (Marathon)
100 Most Influential Africans — alongside Mandela, Mbeki & Tutu
Two decades on screen
Gumba Fire
Music TV show — first major on-air presenting role.
Friends Like These
SABC1 game show hosted for 15 seasons.
Access GP
Political TV show.
Kicking Doors with Sbu Leope
CNBC Africa entrepreneurship series.
Studio albums — a two-decade timeline
Executive-produced over 30 award-winning gold and multi-platinum albums across two decades. Below is the timeline of his own studio releases as a recording artist, from Tembisa to the world.
House Tunes 5
The compilation debut that put a young Tembisa DJ on national shelves, mixing local house …
Y-Lens Vol. 1
The first instalment of the Y-Lens series, born out of the Yfm years and built around club…
Y-Lens Vol. 2
A bigger, bolder follow-up as the Y-Lens brand became a fixture of South African radio and…
Y-Lens Vol. 3
The third chapter of the series, released as DJ Sbu's national profile peaked through tele…
Sound Revival
Named after the Metro FM show, a revivalist mix of soulful and Afro house championing loca…
Sound Revival Vol. 2
The sequel, expanding the Sound Revival brand into a full album series and national tour.
MoFaya
Released alongside the launch of the MOFAYA energy drink — music and brand building moving…
Home Coming: The African Odyssey
A pan-African project drawing on collaborations across the continent, framed as a return t…
It's My Piano (Chapter 1)
An amapiano-led chapter, DJ Sbu stepping into the genre that redefined South African dance…
It's My House Chapter 1
A return to house music foundations — the first chapter of the It's My House series.
It's My House Chapter 2
The second chapter of the It's My House series, continuing the house revival into 2026.
On screen, in character
Behind The Badge
Hangtime
Isingo
Generations
Yizo Yizo
Companies & platforms
The businesses, foundations and labels DJ Sbu has founded or co-founded.
Selected articles & features
Made In Africa: Beverages From Africa And Produced In Africa
Thirteen African Celebrities To Watch In 2013
100 Most Influential Africans — Arts & Culture
DJ Sbu talks about Billionaires Under Construction
DJ Sbu gives back on Youth Day
5 Interesting Facts About DJ Sbu's Billionaires Under Construction
Official site

Social platforms & activity
Where Sbu shows up daily — music drops, The Hustlers Corner SA Podcast episodes, MOFAYA activations, property tours, and life on the road.