Bheki Mtetwa was born in Mevamhlophe, a rural area close to Empangeni in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. He attended his Primary School at Thembalihle and completed at Mathinta High School.
As a teenager he used to admire portrait artists sketching at the Durban Beach Front. He then bought himself his first sketch pad and pencils producing his first self-portrait, at the age of 20. He went for training at Bat Centre (Durban), training in Visual Arts. The panel was impressed with the quality of his work and was selected to join the program for one year. Afterwards he began working from portraying people and venturing into sign writing.
With a good portfolio in his back pack in 2004 he moved to Johannesburg.Bheki visited libraries spending time learning how to draw and sketch, he fell in love with art books. He joined CICI in Hillbrow and took art classes there. He then joined Little artist Outreach Program, he started to sell paintings local and international and venturing into watercolour medium