Mabongi Mabaso Fero
Award-winning recording artist. Worship leader. Vocal mentor. Pastor.
A South African voice shaped by Bushbuckridge, sharpened in Pretoria, and now heard across the continent — devoted to developing the gift God places in every singer.
Mabongi Mabaso Fero
Founder · Mabongi+
A childhood in Bushbuckridge.
Mabongi was born and raised in Thulamahashe, a small town tucked into the hills of Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga, South Africa. It is the kind of place where music is not a hobby — it is a household language. Hymns drift from kitchens, harmonies are tested at the dinner table, and Sunday is rehearsed long before Sunday arrives.
She began singing at the age of four. By the time most children were learning to read, she was already finding her ear, leaning into melodies, and imitating the voices around her. Music was not something she pursued; it was something she could not avoid.
Her earliest and most formative influences were her uncles — Pastor Mandla Chawane and Bonginkosi Chawane — who led a gospel group called Skylarks of Praise. Watching them minister, hearing their arrangements, and seeing what it looked like to give a voice fully to God planted the seeds of a calling she would only fully understand decades later.
From the choir loft to jazz school.
After matric, Mabongi left home for Pretoria with one conviction: a gift this serious deserved serious training. She enrolled at the Tshwane University of Technology, graduating with a degree in Music, majoring in Jazz Vocals.
Jazz reshaped her. It demanded a different ear, a different humility, and a different relationship with the voice. It taught her phrasing, breath, improvisation, ensemble listening, and the discipline of practising the same line a hundred ways until it sounds inevitable. It introduced her to the craft underneath the calling.
Today, when she coaches a vocalist or stands in front of a worship team, that formation is what she is drawing from. The standards she holds her students to are the standards she was held to. The reason singers grow quickly under her is because she is teaching from a foundation that took years to build.
The discography.
A decade of worship — released, recorded, and offered. Listen on your platform of choice, or open a release for its dedicated link.
Editorial endorsement.
Kabomo
Artist · Actor · Writer
"Mabongi is one of South Africa's significant voices. There is a conviction in her singing, and an excellence, that even those of us who don't live inside the gospel genre cannot help but recognise. You hear the jazz in her control, the discipline in her phrasing, and the fluency with which she moves between languages and musical worlds. Her growth as an artist is unmistakable across her body of work."
In good company.
Over the years, Mabongi has shared stages, recordings, and ministry moments alongside some of the most respected voices in African and global gospel — among them:
- Nathaniel Bassey
- Joe Mettle
- Ntokozo Mbambo
- Nqubeko Mbatha
- Benjamin Dube
- Khaya Mthethwa
- Edwin Dadson
- Donnie McClurkin
- …and many others
The vocal coach behind the voices.
Ask around in worship circles across South Africa and you will quickly notice something: many people first met Mabongi as a teacher, long before they ever heard her sing on a record. Her name travels through choirs, worship teams, and vocal rooms because she has spent years quietly developing other people.
Her teaching work spans:
- Private vocal coaching
- Choir development
- Worship team training
- Masterclasses
- Workshops across South Africa
- Technique, breath & vocal health
- Confidence & stage presence
- Spiritual formation for worshippers
What sets her apart is the marriage of two things that rarely meet — rigorous musicianship and pastoral care. She will correct a vowel and pray for a wound in the same sentence. That is why singers grow under her, and why they stay.
The shepherd behind the singer.
Mabongi serves as Assistant Lead Pastor of Church Xtended alongside her husband, Pastor JP Fero. The role is not a title she wears for the stage — it is the slower, quieter, less visible work that gives her music its weight.
Day to day, that looks like leadership development, discipleship, pastoral care, building community, and raising the next generation of worshippers and leaders. It is sermon notes and late-night phone calls, it is mentoring young women, and it is sitting with people in the seasons that don't make it onto social media.
Everything she teaches inside Mabongi+ is filtered through this — the conviction that gifts grow best inside healthy people, and that worship is inseparable from how we live.
A continent in worship.
ATMOS HEAVEN is one of the defining moments of Mabongi's ministry journey. It brought together some of Africa's most influential worship voices — artists from South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Botswana — into one room, around one altar.
But ATMOS HEAVEN is not a recording. It is a vision, a gathering, and a declaration: that the worship rising out of Africa belongs on every shelf, in every language, and in every house of God across the world.
Songs from the project are now being released globally — a continent's offering, sent out.
A vocal and worship platform, built from the room.
For more than a decade, Mabongi has been doing the slow work — coaching singers one-on-one, training worship teams week after week, leading masterclasses, mentoring leaders, and developing choirs across South Africa. The same question came back over and over again: How do people who can't get into the room access what happens in the room?
Mabongi+ is the answer. It is a premium vocal transformation and worship development platform — a place where the lessons, frameworks, and ministry philosophy that have shaped singers up close are made available to people everywhere.
- Courses & masterclasses
- Guided vocal practice
- 1-on-1 coaching
- Mentorship
- Worship team development
- Leadership growth
- A serious community of singers
- Resources for the long road
Mabongi+ exists so that a worship leader in a small church, a student in a bedroom, and a seasoned vocalist between tours can all sit under the same teaching — and walk away changed.
"Your voice is a gift from God. When it is developed, stewarded, and surrendered to Him, it becomes a tool that can encourage, heal, and transform lives."
One life, many rooms.
Recording Artist
A growing catalogue of worship records, from Tshama (2012) to ATMOS HEAVEN — each one a season offered in song.
Worship Leader
Leading rooms where people stop performing and start encountering — prophetic, pastoral, and uncompromisingly God-centred.
Vocal Mentor
Coaching singers, training worship teams, and developing choirs with the rigour of a jazz musician and the heart of a pastor.
Pastor & Speaker
Assistant Lead Pastor of Church Xtended — discipling, shepherding, and speaking at conferences and gatherings across Africa.
Worship, teaching & live moments
A curated stream from Mabongi's catalogue — performances, masterclass clips, and ministry sessions. Press play to keep watching where you left off.
Watch every new release first
Subscribe to @iAmMabongi on YouTube for live worship sessions, behind-the-scenes studio cuts, and full-length teachings.
Come and grow your voice.
Whether you are a worship leader, a student, or a seasoned vocalist — there is a seat for you inside Mabongi+.