He was a bright, popular and successful student at Morris Isaacson High School[1] in Soweto where he was the head of the debate team and president of the Methodist Wesley Guild.
[citation needed] Having been identified as the leader of the uprising by the South African government, Mashinini fled South Africa in exile, first to London then later to various other African countries, including Liberia where he was briefly married to Miss Liberia 1977, Welma Campbell.
He died under mysterious circumstances, possibly of homicide, in the summer of 1990 while in exile in Guinea.
[2] His body was repatriated to South Africa on 4 August 1990 where he was interred in Avalon Cemetery.
[3] There is a statue of Teboho Mashinini by Johannes Phokela in the grounds of his old school that was unveiled on 1 May 2010 by Amos Masondo, the Mayor of Johannesburg.