Here’s why DJ Sbu trended pretty much all weekend

DJ Sbu was the talk of Twitter for much of the weekend and it had nothing to do with music.

Instead, fans were flooding his mentions, and TLs in general, with adverts for their businesses. In short, his page became the community noticeboard you see at Shoprite - just, you know, on Twitter.

DJ Sbu took to social media just hours after MultiChoice sparked fears of mass retrenchment at the company when it announced a business "realignment" which would affect nearly 2,200 jobs in its call and walk-in centres.

In a series of posts, he encouraged entrepreneurship and created a platform for his followers to promote their business.

The star posted a video of himself calling on people to punt their services, no matter how big or small, and said he would promote them to his 700k-plus followers.

The response was massive, with hundreds of tweets posted under the hashtag #DJSbu in the hours that followed.

Services ranged from cleaning to selling laptops, Herbalife and babysitting. Even aspiring rappers and musicians used the platform to showcase their talent.

Sbu carried on the trend on Monday, reposting dozens of adverts he had received.

Speaking to TshisaLIVE, he said he was inspired to lend a hand after reading reports of mass retrenchments at several large companies

"I decided that I needed to make a difference. I have been preaching entrepreneurship since 2013. I have been promoting black businesses for some time, but it caught on this weekend. People thought I was mad when I started promoting black businesses, but now people see that it is one of the only ways we can make a difference and beat unemployment. 

Sbu said he was overwhelmed with the response and called on others with large followings on social media to open their platforms to do the same.

"Big business needs to take us seriously and create entrepreneurship opportunities instead of just cutting jobs. We also need people to take these businesses seriously, both people on the street and government departments," he added.