There was a time when Joe Fleming didn’t think he’d make it through… today, he’s helping other men find their way back, one step at a time.
Johannesburg, South Africa (25 March 2026) – This week’s episode of ‘Good Things with Brent Lindeque’ is honest, raw and filled with hope. I got to sit down with Joe Fleming… a man whose journey across South Africa has been anything but ordinary, and whose purpose today is rooted in helping others find their way back to themselves.
Joe is the founder of Recharge, a men’s mental health walking community creating space for connection, conversation and healing across South Africa. He’s also the storyteller behind Here in South Africa and the owner of Bonafide Moto Co, hosting off-road motorcycle adventures since 2016. A US military veteran, Joe served in Iraq before stepping into corporate life back in the States… but love brought him to South Africa more than a decade ago, a decision that completely reshaped how he sees life, purpose and where he belongs. Over the past 13 years, he’s travelled the country documenting its beauty, its people and its stories… but somewhere along the way, the story he was really learning to understand was his own.
Joe speaks openly about a time when he found himself in what he describes as a “dark place”, a moment where everything felt overwhelming and the future felt impossibly far away. He shares how he reached a point where he tried to take his own life… and how, in that final moment, something intervened.
“I don’t know what it was,” he explains. “People call it different things… faith, instinct, something bigger than us… but something stopped me. Something gave me a second chance.”
And that second chance became the beginning of everything. Through that experience, Joe began to rebuild, not all at once, but step by step, breath by breath, learning how to be present again, how to sit with himself and how to reach out instead of withdrawing. He doesn’t romanticise or simplify it. It’s a raw, honest conversation. That realisation is what led to the creation of Recharge… a space where men can walk side by side, talk if they want to, stay silent if they need to, and simply be part of something that reminds them they’re not alone.
“Men don’t always have spaces like this,” Joe shares. “We’re taught to keep things in, to deal with it, to move on… but sometimes what you actually need is to stop, to breathe, and to walk next to someone who understands.”
Joe’s love for South Africa runs through everything he does, from the landscapes he explores to the communities he builds, and it’s clear that this country didn’t just become his home… it became part of his healing. Through storytelling, adventure and connection, he’s found a way to give back in a way that’s deeply human and incredibly needed.
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