Mzwanele Manyi information

The Honourable Mzwanele Manyi MP
Manyi at a birthday soiree in 2017
Member of the National Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 June 2023
Director-General of the Government Communication and Information System
In office February 2011 – August 2012
President	Jacob Zuma
Preceded by	Themba Maseko
Succeeded by	Phumla Williams
Personal details
Born	Mzwanele Jimmy Manyi (1964-01-20) 20 January 1964 (age 60) Meadowlands, Soweto Transvaal, South Africa
Political party	Economic Freedom Fighters (since 2023)
Other political affiliations	African Transformation Movement (2019–2023) African National Congress (until 2019)

Mzwanele Jimmy Manyi (born 20 January 1964) is a South African politician, businessman, communications strategist, and former civil servant who has been a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa since 2023, representing the Economic Freedom Fighters. He has been the official spokesperson to former President Jacob Zuma and the Jacob G. Zuma Foundation since 2021. Between February 2011 and August 2012, he was official spokesperson of the South African government and head of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS).

Before entering government in 2009, Manyi worked in the corporate sector, both in banking and in blue-chip companies. During this period, he rose to national prominence as a prominent advocate for black economic empowerment, the chairperson of the public Commission for Employment Equity, and the president of the Black Management Forum. His tenure in the latter position, from 2006 to 2012, overlapped with his career in government, and gave rise in 2011 to a finding by the Public Protector that Manyi had failed adequately to manage the resulting conflict of interest.

After a term as director-general in the Department of Labour from 2009 to 2011, Manyi was appointed as head of GCIS and official cabinet spokesperson. His brief tenure at GCIS, from February 2011 to August 2012, was controversial, and he had poor relations with the South African National Editors' Forum. The Zondo Commission later found prima facie evidence that, under Manyi's leadership, GCIS had awarded an unjustifiably large proportion of its advertising spend to the New Age, a newspaper owned by President Zuma's controversial allies, the Gupta brothers. The commission concluded that Manyi's appointment at GCIS was part of the opening salvo of state capture in South Africa and alleged that Manyi himself had personally facilitated state capture.

After he left GCIS in August 2012, Manyi remained a controversial figure because of his close links to the Gupta brothers: he hosted a talk show, Straight Talk, on the Gupta-owned television channel ANN7, and, in 2017, he purchased the Guptas' media interests, becoming the owner of the New Age and ANN7 (later rebranded as Afro Voice and Afro World View respectively). Both media companies ceased production within a year. Manyi also led the Progressive Professionals Forum, in which capacity he railed against white monopoly capital, and he founded the Decolonisation Foundation, which was later linked to Bell Pottinger's pro-Gupta public relations campaign. Formerly a member of the African National Congress and then of the African Transformation Movement, Manyi joined the Economic Freedom Fighters in May 2023. He was sworn in as a Member of Parliament a month later.