Irfaan Mangera
Mobilising a new generation of leaders

Irfaan Mangera outside the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation in Lenasia, Gauteng © Thom Pierce 2023
Irfaan doesn’t want to talk about change, he wants to see it happen. The biggest motivator for him is to visit communities and see the young people that he has worked with being empowered as activists.
“In a hopeless situation where the country is currently, it’s these pockets of hope that I think really are what we must amplify and find ways to support.”
Irfaan has already had a lifetime of experience as an Actionist. Growing up in Lenasia he started volunteering at the age of 13, distributing food hampers to vulnerable people in the neighbouring township of Thembelihle. At 16 he was elected to the executive of Crescents Cricket Club using it as a vehicle to encourage young people off the streets and unite the diverse community.
In matric, he started to volunteer with the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation. This provided him with the insight, confidence and critical thinking that led him to join the Fees Must Fall protests in his first year at university.
From this point Irfaan joined almost every organisation that he could, leaning into the camaraderie of the community that he had found at university, and the shared passion to create change.
“Had I not had the prior experiences in the community to witness and feel inequality and poverty that was rampant here I don't think I would have made the connection to say ‘I have a duty towards the people of this country to do something about it’ … and you met at university level a bunch of people from all over who felt the same.”
Irfaan is now the youth activism program manager at the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation.
The program is designed to build organised youth groups in communities, mobilising young people towards actual grassroots impact, and building a network of young people across the country who can engage with each other on what is happening in the country and how it can be solved.
So far they have started 30 clubs in Gauteng in just over 3 years. Young people aged from 12-25 make up the club, whilst those from 25-35 play a mentorship role.
Irfaan works with them to develop core leadership and membership, building democracy into a grassroots program. He then coordinates with the leaders, supporting them in dealing with the issues that they have identified. These have included, but are not limited to, GBV, climate change and sanitation.
The youth program is also involved in building the National Youth Coalition of civil society organisations. A platform for young people to engage and create change at a national level.
“We don’t believe we are speaking on behalf of youth. We want to engage young people and amplify their voices, their struggles and their issues. Which is why the model is about going into a community to support what is there and not dictate what they must be doing.”
At 26 years old Irfaan knows that the youth have the power to create important changes in their own communities, a message that is worth passing on to future generations.
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