Manana rose to political prominence through the ANC Youth League and was aged 28 when President Jacob Zuma appointed him as a deputy minister in June 2012.
[2] He became involved in politics as a teenager, joining the Congress of South African Students and ANC Youth League in 1998.
Then aged 19 and the proprietor of an event management company, he told the press that he was "going to protest oppression and injustice – freedom and justice are causes for which I am prepared to die.
[1] Manana stood as an ANC candidate in the 2009 general election and won a seat in the National Assembly, the lower house of the South African Parliament.
[13] On 12 June 2012, President Zuma announced a cabinet reshuffle in which Manana was appointed as Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training.
"[16] Manana defended himself, pointing to his "energy" and personal experience in institutions of higher education, and argued that students ought not to "undermine the president and question his capacity to appoint members of the executive".
[17] In the early hours of Sunday morning on 6 August 2017, Manana was involved in the assault of three women at a nightclub, Cubana, in Fourways in northern Johannesburg.
[18] One of the women, Mandisa Duma, told City Press that the altercation had begun inside the club with a heated political debate about whether Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma or Cyril Ramaphosa should be chosen to succeed Zuma as ANC president.
When the argument became hostile, Duma and her friends had left the club, one of them making a comment about Manana being gay, which apparently triggered the assault.
[26] Journalists were not allowed inside the courtroom, leading to allegations that Manana was receiving preferential treatment, but Police Minister Fikile Mbalula said that he "will not be treated with special kid gloves but will face the full wrath of the law".
He was also required to complete anger-management classes and 500 hours of community service, and to compensate the victims for their medical expenses (about R26,500 in total), and he was declared unfit to possess a firearm.
Reportedly granted political leeway as a loyalist of President Zuma, Manana retained his seat as an ordinary member of the National Assembly.
[35] In early May 2018, media reported that Manana's domestic worker, Christine Wiro, had laid a complaint against him with the police, alleging that he had tried to push her down the stairs in his home in Fourways.
[41] ANC Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu said that Manana's voluntary resignation was "indicative of someone who has taken full responsibility and has shown remorse for his actions".
"[43] However, due to the ANC's new rules about criminal convictions, he was initially disqualified from standing for re-election to the party's National Executive Committee.