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Mbongeni Manzini

Transforming dumpsites into gardens

Mbongeni Manzini at home in his garden, Gauteng © Thom Pierce 2023

Mbongeni grew up in Meadowlands, Soweto. His family had been forcibly removed from their home in Sophiatown and left on the streets of Soweto. There were no shops, no businesses and no electricity. There was no public transport so people were forced to walk the 21 km to Johannesburg for work. Out of this injustice, a community grew and leaned on each other for support. People organised themselves and soon a functioning suburb was established. 


It is this memory of community that drives Mbongeni in his actionism. As a child, if anyone needed food and there was nothing at home, they would be fed by someone in the community.  If they needed shoes, a neighbour would donate a pair they didn’t need anymore. The community worked as a collective, and he feels responsible for preserving and passing on those values to future generations. 


His feelings of responsibility for playing his part in the community run so deep that he has taken it upon himself to clean up dumping sites and transform them into gardens, growing vegetables to use as part of his ongoing feeding scheme.


From his family home,  children from the surrounding areas come and learn about art, nature, and planting food. He sometimes takes them on horseriding and museum trips. The objective is to provide them with an education they cannot receive in school, expanding their experiences and encouraging them to engage more with the world outside their homes.


Mbongeni engages with parents, explaining why their children can benefit from his informal program. Often 50 to 60 kids will show up when he has advertised a workshop. On other days they might pop in just for help with their homework. This is Mgongeni’s vision for the world, to create a way of living where doors are always open to help and guide others in the community, just like when he was growing up. 


Mbongeni has big plans to expand his educational operations and feeding scheme but to do so he needs help. Donations of computers are welcome as well as materials for crocheting and sewing. On a larger scale, he is looking for four 6-metre containers to expand his feeding scheme.



CREATED FOR positive activism © 2025

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