Open Letter to Dj Sbu

Dear Sbusiso “Dj Sbu” Leope.

Wait, that’s not an appropriate way to greet you. Here it is, Hoyi Hoyiiii!

My name is Teboho Thuswa (23), I’m an actor and a motivated speaker, not a motivational one because trials and tribulations I encountered along my journey have strongly ‘motivated’ me to speak and make huge attempts in changing people’s lives.

I was really inspired to pen this letter to you because you exquisitely highlight the importance of the solid nation building through all your efficient leadership efforts of ensuring that there is still hope and the light at the end of the tunnel especially for those who have already thrown the towel. The difference you are assembling in our society is no way going unnoticed Mr Leope and therefore my other crucial reason for penning this letter to you is because we often make noise about people’s good deeds when they have passed away when we have actually failed to let them know when they were still alive as it is very significant for every individual to know about their exceptional deeds. Whenever we are reminded about how good we are, we often accelerate our performances and remain at all times positive while striving to do more of the decent activities.

Dj Sbu, as a young man who grew up in township, I too grew up listening to your music and “remember when it rained” was my outmost favourite track, I even had it on my cassette at that time together with songs of Mzekezeke whom I believe you are related to lol. I also need to say through this letter that I’m very angry at you for leaving Friends Like These because I used fantasize being there with my friends and hear you say “Boys and Girls, it’s time to put your faith in a friend.. cl cl!” as I grew up. When I took time to really look into your journey, I was more captivated when I noticed that you actually ventured in the industry when you were still very young, we are in most cases as the society blinded by seeing the complete products without actually being aware that behind every beautiful cake on the shelves, there were first ingredients, the process of mixing and the most oppressing procedure which is the oven that ensures the completeness of the cake. You evidently confirmed to me that as I’m still young and in my 20s, I am ought to strive to use all the energy that I have on building my empire so that I can be able to grow and expand with my mistakes.

Mr Leope you in high school failed your matric and you didn’t allow that setback to hold you back; you instead became an arrow that had to be hold back so that it can strike forward with much needed strength to hit the target. As you normally say “failing is not failure”, that’s very true, failure gives us an opportunity to do what we didn’t manage to do differently. I also picked from your journey that failing actually prepares one to be strong enough to defeat whatever obstacles that may come their way. The way you have conquered obstructions that came your way, you need to be titled the “Super Man of South Africa”. Dj Sbu, you indeed have the crocodile skin because most people kept on giving you the crocodile smile in many occasions. Most of us love being mentally strong, but we hate situations that allow us to put our mental strength to good use and you therefore proved to many of us that growing up in the township doesn’t mean you don’t have the capacity to be mentally strong and the audacity conquer the world through persistence and patience.  

Today we have more famous and influential people but they lack charismatic character that you have Bra Sbu. You could have opted to stay in the game as you co-own TS Records that has over the years unlocked the most talented artists but you advantageously used your influence as a social entrepreneur to advance your philanthropic toil through the most beneficial Sbusiso Leope Education Foundation and there is no doubt that we won’t be having strong leaders in 2020 and beyond with the indispensable knowledge investment you are making. I truly respect your vision Mr Leope and it is with no surprise why you landed on the 2016 list of 100 most influential young South Africans by Advance Media in personal development and academia. It is also with no surprise as to why you were invited to be part of the African entrepreneur panel at Havard Business College in Boston

Carl Rogers attractively says “if we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness.” Today through your educational foundation, learners in underprivileged schools are highly encouraged through seminars you take to high schools and more than 500 bursaries are awarded to students entering universities as you go all out to raise funds for them by engaging with various stake holders in corporate, business and media industry. The SLEF Benefit Concert is also such an amazing project and I will surely be joining you in Moriting Park on the 4th of March 2017 for this year’s concert as you aim to raise R1 million for well deserving students so that they can get a chance for the tertiary education.  

You have indeed taken responsibility to play your part as an active citizen and I give you a stand ovation for that because you highly deserve it. Dj Sbu, for a very long time you’ve been under the media attack and sometimes we were fed with lies about you, I’m one of the people who began to have doubts about your legitimacy until my eyes were opened to really notice that there were nothing but smear campaigns to bring down the “Super Man of SA”. You flying higher offended many people and they had nothing but the media platforms to use in order to bring you down. Your strength has really motivated me to keep my head above the sea level at all times, some of us don’t have your strength Bra Sbu, the minute haters discourage us we automatically fall.

You have muscularly proven that when you are a Billionaire Under Construction you must never be intimidated by people who don’t know where God wants to take you. Bassey Johnson beautifully says “Those who pray for your downfall are concentrating negative thoughts towards you, without taking cognisance of the slippery ground in which they are standing which could lead to their downfall.“ People are very quick to see other people’s mistakes even without being aware the mistakes are there for a reason. For instance, they never realised that your Forbes fake cover mistake was actually a direction for you to CNBC Africa and Kick Doors they were trying to close for you. You further rose with Rise FM and used your energy to agree to good things with Vuma FM at the same time when they ‘mo fired’ you and thought it’s all over with you.

Dj Sbu, the chances are most people don’t know that the founders of Redbull are Chaleo Yoovidhya and Dietrich Mateschitz, the founders of Monster are Hubert Hansen and his three sons and the founder of Berroca is Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche but I’m 100% sure that they know one of the founders of Mofaya Energy Drink. I’m sure they can answer this one even when they are sleeping. We drink various drinks today but we don’t even know its founders. I become proud when I open the Mofaya can and hear that “Thixo!” sound because it is a reminder that I too as a black child can have a product under my name and inspire others. I have further seen from your journey that when you do something good or bigger you must expect people who are going to try and put you down at all junctions. Ever since you founded Mofaya Energy Drink, we started seeing more negative reviews about you than when you were related to Mzekezeke. As the old saying goes that “you can’t keep a good man down”, you indeed never went down and succumbed even when you went broke after founding the product. Some of us find it hard to rise up and derive a lot of excuses and blaming instead of picking ourselves up.

Through SLEF, your energy drink and other ventures; you have further created a lot of jobs and business opportunities that are empowering black people. Your uKufosta nje ngo Mzekezeke method has really paid off and that marketing 101 style furthermore proves that we don’t need only need the status quo system to get our products to the people. From how you master the guerrilla marketing, I am in no way going to make complaints anymore as to how do I succeed because there are indeed many ways to kill a cat. I am at this point better than before and thus realise that every opportunity you grab in life is an important one and that the person who doesn't recognise an opportunity is a bigger loser than one who tries his hand at an opportunity.

I am currently busy with my first book titled Nobody Is Bigger Than Your Business Of Life which you are obviously going to get a signed copy of. As I was having huge doubts as to how am I going to sell it since many books are not selling, I then remembered that you are the best-selling author of the amazing book titled Leadership 2020 presents The Beginning. I sat down and analysed exactly how you sold more than 10 000 copies because that’s the route I want to take, you have raised my hope and improved my entrepreneurship consciousness, I am now in no way doubting that I can sell more than 10 000 copies using ‘Dj Sbu Marketing Technique’ because you did it. We are in many occasions trapped by fear which the system has made us to believe and people like you are thus constantly breaking that barrier so intelligently for us as youngsters to see that we can surely break down the colonial selling system by taking our products directly to people from the boots of our cars even if we have to. I am highly anticipating your upcoming book titled Billionaire Under Construction: The Mindset Of An Entrepreneur because you have proven that you can kick all gates that may seem closed to get what you want and no one can ever stop your go with that mental strength.   

One big thing I admire about you Mr Sbusiso Leope is that you never wait for people to respect your hustle so that you can hustle. Most of us today want to be loved and adored for our hustles and we are often not aware that people can at any time change their minds and we should therefore not wait on anyone to applaud us just so we can start to run our marathon. I’d further like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your efforts, and as you keep doing good things, you must know that some of us are noting down because we are in future going to take that baton from you and continue with the legacy.

I have absolutely learned a lot from you and I wish you all the best in all your ventures, your leadership capacity has indicated to many of us that leadership is action and not a position as many think so.

Warm Regards

Teboho Thuswa, @tebohothuswa