South Africa faces an education crisis that has significant implications for the freedom of citizens and development of the country. A context of government incapacity necessitates that other modes of improving the education system be explored. This paper examines the Nine Tenths Mentoring Programme to gauge the potential of community-based efforts as a possible solution for education injustice in South Africa. Using social capital theory, the paper examines how this community engagement programme builds human capabilities. A brief analysis of the improvement in pass rates and reflection on the lessons from the intervention sheds light on the enormous strides made over five years. Despite some limitations to this approach, the paper provides a compelling narrative of the way in which mentoring programmes such as Nine Tenths nurture the necessary social capital to bring about social change, which in turn supports the development of human capabilities in local contexts.