GALLERIES | Creatives given a platform at Comic Con Cape Town

Influencer Sibu Mpanza, formerly from Mandalay, was the host at the Telkom gaming stand activation at Comic Con Cape Town this year.

The Johannesburg resident chatted to TygerBurger at the event and told us about his rise to television presenting fame and his roots in Mitchells Plain.

“I grew up in Mandalay. I grew up going to church in Khayelitsha and going shopping in the Town Centre with my mom,” he said.

Background

Mpanza’s presenting career started almost by accident when he discovered YouTube as a student at the University of Cape Town (UCT). While skipping class one day, he sat down in a computer lab and came across a creator talking directly to a camera.

“I said, ‘What is that? What do you mean, welcome to my channel? I thought YouTube is just a platform where you dump random videos’,” he recalls.

It was 2014, and the concept was far from mainstream.

“Today in 2026 — completely normal — but in 2014, very few people knew or understood what that was.”

Two weeks after that discovery, he uploaded his first video — and waited. Nobody watched it. He then ran around the computer lab urging classmates to click the link.

“That day, I got my first five views and it completely changed my life.”

From there, he created current affairs content covering race, class and gender, and gradually built an audience. By 2017, he felt ready to take the leap. With one year left of a social work degree, he dropped out of UCT and moved to Johannesburg to pursue content creation full time. Work with brands followed, and eventually so did radio and, later, television. He now hosts Telkom vs Gaming show on SABC every Friday at 15:00.

“We talk all things gaming, eSports, the love of gaming, but also the competitive side where you can make it a career, make some money,” he says.

READ ALSO: Comic Con Cape Town plans to move to bigger venue next year

Perseverance

Mpanza was fortunate to have entered the influencer space when it was still new, and his audience grew steadily to 60 000 subscribers — with around 200 000 viewers a month. He acknowledges, however, that people starting out today face a much steeper battle.

“I always tell people who are starting, they always think there’s so many of us, I don’t think I can do this anymore,” he says.

His advice to would-be influencers, though, is straightforward: just keep going.

“Just keep going because people come in, they think it’s not a lot of work, then they realise, yoh, every day I have to come up with an idea. I have to talk to people. I have to project my voice. I have to do this and that. So anytime somebody says to me, Sibu, I wanna become a YouTuber, I say do it, but you need to respect it. It’s more work than you think.”

Family support

Mpanza adds that the families of aspiring influencers may not always understand what they are doing or be fully behind them. In his own case, however, his mother stood by him — even when others were sceptical about his choices.

Before moving to Johannesburg, he had entered a competition called Break the Net, where creators uploaded weekly videos and competed for views. His mother saw the attention that brought him, and that shifted her thinking.

“So by the time I told her I’d like to drop out of school and pursue this full time, she kind of understood. She was like, I see there’s something going on here. I don’t understand it, but I love you enough to say, I see there’s something going on. She gave me her last little bonus she gets in December.”

With that money, he moved to Johannesburg, lived on a couch for a few months, and slowly worked his way up — earning R2 000, then R3 000, enough to cover the rent, before landing a radio job and, a year later, a television job.

When he broke the news to his mother that he would be on SABC, her reaction was telling.

“She said, ‘Oh, so you are working in Jo’burg. I said, ‘How? Mama, what did you think I was doing there the whole time?’ But I think there’s something about traditional media that the older generation is like, ‘I understand this. I get it because I grew up watching Generations. So, when I see people on TV or on the news, okay, it’s a real job now’.”

Mitchells Plain cosplayers

Comic Con Cape Town 2026

Just like Mpanza, Cape Town’s beloved pop culture festival has officially outgrown its home. Comic Con Cape Town, which has been running in the city since 2018, had 36 000 visitors this year — the biggest turnout the Cape Town edition has ever seen.

Organisers plan to move the event next year to CTICC1, a larger, single-level space across the road from the current venue. Organiser Carol Weaving, managing director of RX Africa, announced the move at a press briefing ahead of the four-day event which kicked off on Thursday 30 April.

“We’ve now outgrown this venue and we’re going to be moving across the road to CTICC1, which is bigger and we have more space,” said Weaving.

The four-day programme was packed with cosplay competitions, tabletop and board gaming, anime, collectibles, cards, toys and after-dark events, including a coffee-and-comics session, a comedy evening on Friday and sets by DJ Elliott. A cosplay championship rounds out the highlights. The event ran until Sunday 3 May.

More cosplayers

Platform

The international convention, which is one of the City’s signature events, also creates a platform for local creatives.

This year the City also featured 10 local artists in an exhibition.

“Emerging artists bring fresh ideas and new energy to Cape Town’s creative sector. Through this programme, we are helping artists build their skills, showcase their work, and connect with new audiences. The City is proud to support these artists and invest in the future of art, while fostering creativity and innovation. The Emerging Artists Programme not only provides a platform for young and new artists to grow, but gives them a stage to show off their talent to an international audience,” said Francine Higham, Mayco Member for Community Services and Health.

Artists were selected from three Mural Meet Up Sessions, held in public spaces across the City. The Mural Meet Ups were designed to attract a wide and diverse range of artists and creatives working across disciplines.

Selected artists then participated in a one month training and development programme which included workshops, mentorship and hands on preparation, supporting participants to develop their artworks into products, strengthen their presentation skills, and engage confidently with the public.