Mavivi Myakayaka-Manzini

Mavivi Myakayaka-Manzini (born 19 January 1956), also known as Mavivi Manzini, is a South African politician and diplomat who is currently the South African High Commissioner to Malawi. She was a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress (ANC) between 1994 and 2007 and she was deputy president of the ANC Women's League between 2003 and 2008. During apartheid, she worked in exile in the secretariat of the ANC's women's section; in the 2000s, after one term in the national Parliament (1994–1999), she headed the ANC's international relations desk.

Early life and education Yvette Lillian Mavivi Myakayaka was born on 19 January 1956 in Alexandra on the outskirts of Johannesburg in what was then the Transvaal (now Gauteng province) and spent most of her childhood in Soweto. Her parents were teachers and were members of the African National Congress (ANC) until it was banned by the apartheid government in 1960. She became politically active as a teenager in about 1973, joining the Black Consciousness-aligned South African Students' Movement while still in high school. After her arrival at the University of the North (Turfloop) in 1975, she was active in the South African Students' Organisation, which was banned on the campus at the time. Later, in 1989, From 1981 she was editor of the Voice of Women magazine, the primary propaganda organ of the Women's Section, working alongside Marion Sparg and others. She also broadcast on the ANC's Radio Freedom After completing her Master's in the Netherlands, she moved to Tanzania, where her husband was the ANC's chief representative.

Post-apartheid career In South Africa's first fully democratic election in 1994, Myakayaka-Manzini was elected as a Member of Parliament, representing the ANC. and she was described as "Thabo Mbeki's 'eyes and ears' in parliament" while Mbeki was national deputy president. She left Parliament in 1999, in her account because, once the new Constitution had been finalised, she "felt like I have done my job". in 1997 (ranked 43rd), and in 2002 (ranked 34th). In 1997, she also ran unsuccessfully for election as ANC Deputy Secretary-General; it was understood that her candidacy was supported by Mbeki, who was then the Deputy President of South Africa, but she was narrowly beaten by the more left-wing candidate, Thenjiwe Mtintso, earning 1,172 votes to Mtintso's 1,398. In 2007, at the party conference which also removed Mbeki from the ANC presidency, Myakayaka-Manzini lost her seat on the National Executive Committee; she had stood for re-election but did not achieve enough votes.

She remained active in activism for women and was a senior member of the ANC Women's League. Having first gained a seat on the National Executive Committee of the Women's League in 1999, she was deputy president of the league from 2003 to 2008. She became the inaugural spokesperson of the Progressive Women's Movement of South Africa when it was launched in July 2006.

In 2010, Baleka Mbete, by then the national chairperson of the ANC, said that she lobbied for Myakayaka-Manzini to become Director-General in the new Department of Women, Youth, Children and Persons with Disabilities, but that Myakayaka-Manzini had been earmarked for a diplomatic role. Thus she was the South African High Commissioner to Namibia from April 2012 to December 2017. She also remained involved in the ANC; she was appointed to the seven-member appeals committee of the party's Integrity Commission in 2021. In September 2022, the government announced her appointment as South African High Commissioner to Malawi.

Personal life Myakayaka-Manzi was married to Manala Manzini, a former Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, until around 2007. Their marriage was allegedly abusive, which Myakayaka-Manzi spoke about publicly after Manzini was quoted in the media claiming that he used to beat Manzini for refusing to do domestic work. They had at least one child, a daughter, together.

Selected bibliography

Manzini, Mavivi (1994-01-01). "Road to Beijing". Agenda. 10 (23): 101–103. doi:10.1080/10130950.1994.9675382. ISSN 1013-0950. Manzini, Mavivi (1995-01-01). "Woman with Vision". Agenda. 11 (24): 39–39. doi:10.1080/10130950.1995.9675393. ISSN 1013-0950.