Zim presenter shines on Top Billing

Simba Mhere, a presenter on the SABC 3 Top Billing — a lifestyle television programme — is receiving rave reviews with the handling of the popular programme

ZIMBABWE-BORN Simba Mhere, a presenter on the SABC 3 Top Billing — a lifestyle television programme — is receiving rave reviews with the handling of the popular programme North of the Limpopo.

NONHLANHLA SIBANDA OWN CORRESPONDENT Top Billing airs on Thursday evenings from 8:30pm to 9:30pm and on Sunday at 12:00pm on SABC 3.

The show, rated as a multi-million rand lifestyle programme which occasionally takes its presenters outside South Africa and around the world, was pioneered by South Africans Basetsana Kumalo and Patience Stevens.

But Zimbabwe’s Mhere is now in charge.

He told Southern Eye Lifestyle in an exclusive interview that he got his break when Top Billing had a presenter search.

More than 5 000 people took part in the audition at Melrose Arch in South Africa and Mhere emerged the eventual winner.

“I was always the happy-go lucky kid who got along with everyone. I was big into sport growing up. More of a sprinter than anything else so much that I ran for my university,” Mhere said.

“I was always the entertainer among my friends. My friends would call me ‘Simba the entertainer’.”

He moved with his missionary parents to South Africa when he was a year-old, 25 years ago.

“Before Top Billing I was a student studying accounting at the University of Johannesburg and I was an aspiring entrepreneur who started a transport venture because I saw a gap.

“I would pick up students from varsity drive for an hour and drop them back off,” he narrated his life before he found fame with Top Billing.

“Since my first year things have just grown so, many doors have opened and I’ve also become a lot more mature about what I want from my career.”

Mhere sees himself settling down and starting a family in the near future.

However, other than having a family he says he wants to turn his career into a real business because he loves to entertain whether in front or behind the camera.

Related Topics