Tete Dijana was born in 1988 in Lonely Park village near Mahikeng in the North West Province of South Africa. He began running competitively in secondary school in 2005 and enrolled in Sports Science at North-West University but was forced to drop out after his first year due to financial exclusion. To make ends meet, he took a job as a security guard at the same university, often surviving on two hours of sleep while balancing training with overnight shifts. His Comrades debut came in 2019: 50th place, 6:25:03, good for a silver medal. In January 2022, he joined Nedbank Running Club under coach Dave Adams, and things changed. That year, he won his first Comrades title in 5:30:38 on the up-run. In 2023, he smashed the down-run record with a 5:13:58 finish, beating the previous mark by over four minutes. He also set the South African national record for 50km on the road with 2:39:04. After a painful 2024 where cramps and dizziness dropped him to 14th, Dijana returned in 2025 and reclaimed the title. He held off rival Piet Wiersma by five seconds, winning in 5:25:28. He is now a three-time Comrades champion and stands alongside Bongmusa Mthembu as only the second Black South African runner to achieve the feat.