Dark Johannesburg Streets, Dreams in Colour

Desmond Dube is a South African actor and television personality who has appeared in many local shows and adverts. He grew up in Kimberley, and at 17 he left for Johannesburg with a dream of becoming an artist.

Things did not go as planned. He ended up living on the streets of Johannesburg. In an Instagram post in December 2020 he wrote that he had left Kimberley at 17 and wound up on the streets of Jozi, as Johannesburg is nicknamed, and he said he would share more of his story over time. The articles that reported it do not say how long he was without a home or how he eventually left the streets.

He has said that his dream of becoming an artist gave him an inner refuge that helped keep him alive. His own words about those years were that the streets were dark but he dreamt in colour. In a 2013 interview with the Daily Sun he also recalled the small kindnesses of strangers: a security guard at the YMCA in Braamfontein who quietly let him in to wash, and a doorman at the Pink Cadillac club in Hillbrow who let people sleep inside.

Those experiences, he said, teach a person to have deep respect for others. Today he says he is committed to helping people who are less fortunate than he is, because he understands where they come from. His message to the public in 2020 was one of encouragement: tough times never last, he wrote, and he urged people not to lose hope.