Mzwanele Manyi (born Jimmy Mzwanele Manyi 20 January 1964) is a South African businessman, politician, and former government spokesperson. He serves as a member of the National Assembly of South Africa. Manyi previously served as chief executive officer of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) before acquiring The New Age newspaper and the ANN7 news channel. He was elected to the National Assembly in 2023 as a member of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

Active in the African National Congress (ANC) and later the EFF, Manyi has been a prominent figure in South Africa's political landscape.

Manyi was a geologist by profession before starting his political career.

In July 2005, Manyi was named for the second Commission on Employment Equity (CEE) by Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana. In September 2007, as chairperson of the CEE, he proposed to Parliament that employment equity legislation be amended to exclude white women from benefiting from affirmative action, a suggestion that generated significant public debate. Manyi compared South African companies to Irish coffee, stating: "There is the white part on top and a mass of black at the bottom, with a sprinkling of black right on top... We can conclude that the management of the economy is still being controlled by whites."

Manyi also was a member of the Black Management Forum (BMF), serving as its president.^[when?] South African journalist Mandy Rossouw stated in 2011 that Manyi transformed the BMF, "from a garden-variety pro-transformation organisation to one that every television-watching South African knows about". He was a strong proponent of the government's early Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies.

In August 2009, President Jacob Zuma appointed Manyi as Director-General in the Department of Labour, then under the political leadership of Minister Membathisi Mdladlana. In the weeks following his appointment, Manyi stated that he would remain an advocate for employment equity, pledging to "with the greatest of passion" enforce compliance with BEE requirements and end what he described as the prevailing "nicey, nicey, nicey" attitude towards non-compliant companies.

While serving as Director-General, Manyi remained in office as president of the BMF. Reports indicated that some members of the BMF were dissatisfied with his leadership, particularly those who believed that the organisation's non-partisan stance was incompatible with his support for the governing African National Congress (ANC). Earlier that year, Manyi had publicly endorsed the ANC ahead of the general election. He dismissed concerns about his proximity to the governing party, stating, "We want the government to give the forum a call before they move [on policy] and say 'How must we do this?' We want to influence policy. It is not the forum's job to criticise the government; we've got the DA to do that".

At the BMF's annual general meeting in Midrand in October 2009, the other leadership contender—outgoing deputy president and Shell SA executive Bonang Mohale—withdrew from the contest, resulting in Manyi's re-election for a second three-year term. Following his re-election, Manyi announced that his new deputy, Thembakazi Mnyaka, would "carry the can" for the BMF and become its public face, while he would "play a supporting role". Nevertheless, he continued to be a prominent figure within the organisation. In 2010, he played a key role in the BMF's involvement in leadership elections at Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), where the BMF supported Sandile Zungu over the eventual winner, Futhi Mtoba. The BMF subsequently described Mtoba's election as "a blow against transformation".