Al-Qalam 
By Nabeelah Shaikh
Irfaan Mangera of Gauteng is on a mission to change South Africa’s political landscape – he is the founding member of a new political party called Rise Mzansi.
Tired of slacking politicians and all the corruption around him, he decided it was time for him to enter national politics.
Twenty-seven-year-old Mangera, who has been involved in community activism since he was in primary school, was instrumental in the founding of Rise Mzansi, a newly established political party contesting the upcoming national elections.
The party was officially launched in April 2023 and is led by Songezo Zibi, a former newspaper editor and co-founder of the Rivonia Circle think tank. Mangera is a member of Rise Mzansi’s National Leadership Collective and is the Civic Alliances Coordinator.
“We noticed how the leaders around us are just not working as they should be and are not doing what they need to be doing. This is how Rise Mzansi came to life. I was part of the founding of the party and we said we need to build a new movement. Since launching, we have engaged hundreds of communities in rural areas, and in the townships. One of the primary focuses I’ve had at Rise Mzansi is to build a base of support through civic alliances. This is very much the United Democratic Front model,” said Mangera.
His entrance into national politics was influenced largely by his upbringing and his community activism through the years.
“I attribute my activism to my family’s history. We are the Mangeras’ from 14th Street Fietas. Fietas was the area where the community was forcibly removed. So, my parents and grandparents were forced to live in Lenasia. I have a history and legacy to carry and need to achieve justice,” said Mangera.
Growing up in Lenasia, Mangera started volunteering at just 13, distributing food hampers to vulnerable people. He was actively involved in the community through his school and madrassah at the time.
“At 16, I was elected to the executive of Crescents Cricket Club, using it as a vehicle to encourage young people off the streets and to unite the diverse community.
In matric, I started volunteering with the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation as a youth leader. I joined the programme, and that was my first interaction with formal politics, where I got to meet Kathrada and other veterans of the struggle,” said Mangera.
Corruption
He continued to become involved in numerous organisations.
“This involved everything from sports, arts, and culture, education nation building and working with charity organisations within the Muslim community such as Sanzaf and Ashraful Aid.”
During his first year as a Bachelor of Education student at Wits University, he was actively involved in the Fees Must Fall movement.
He was involved in the ANC and its youth league and served in leadership roles in the Muslim Student’s Association.
“Unfortunately, I could already see corruption everywhere in the ANC back then. The administrators were interested in serving their own interests rather than the community.”
He took a step outside of formal politics and spent four years training young people to become community activists.
“By the time I had left the Kathrada Foundation, we had about 32 youth clubs of young people working on community issues,” said Mangera.
Through the foundation, he spearheaded the creation of the National Youth Coalition with many other activists, building a space for youth in South Africa to strengthen their voices in creating systemic change. He served as its interim chairperson.
He says all of these factors influenced his calling to service.
“It influenced my service to humanity and my people who I think deserve a new political outcome. And at the same time, recognising us as a new generation, we need to write our mission and we have to execute it,” said Mangera. For the last two years, he says he has been in conversation with people who have been feeling the same way as him.
“We are seeing politics become a game where people are more interested in getting positions than serving the interests of people and so, during my national youth coalition work where we organised 2000 young people in protest to the Union Buildings, we saw what we can achieve through community,” said Mangera.
Mangera believes that the only way we can change our country is if everyone takes a step and ‘rises up’.
