Clement Manyathela is a television and radio broadcaster, journalist, and the Founder and Patron of The Clement Manyathela Foundation. He is best known as the host of The Clement Manyathela Show on 702 and Primedia+, where his conversations reach audiences across South Africa every day.
But long before the microphone, Clement was a learner in rural Mpumalanga, in the village of Vaalbank — full of ambition, with nowhere to take it.
"When I left high school, there were two main things that I experienced that I remember thinking I would want the experience to be different for other learners who are coming after me," Clement recalls.
The first was the complete absence of career guidance at his school — a familiar story, he says, for learners across rural South Africa.
He knew he was interested in television, but had no way of knowing whether that interest could ever become a career.
The second was more personal: no one to talk to.
Like many young people in rural communities, Clement carried the weight of hardship largely alone, with no psychosocial support to help him process it.
Both of those gaps shaped the person — and eventually the broadcaster — Clement became. And both are the reason The Clement Manyathela Foundation exists today.
Officially launched on 19 August 2026, the Foundation is Clement's answer to the two things he never had: guidance and support.
It partners with universities, professionals and organisations to expose rural learners to career paths they might not otherwise encounter, and places psychologists in the schools it adopts so that no learner has to carry their struggles alone.
The Foundation adopts two schools each year, building a lasting relationship with each community rather than a once-off intervention.
This approach allows the Foundation to work alongside schools and their communities over time, creating a more consistent environment for support, guidance and meaningful development.
As Patron, Clement remains closely involved in the Foundation's direction and growth — from selecting the schools it adopts, to building the partnerships that make its work possible.
I just want to make a difference. Even if it's two learners who are impacted by the work that we do, and they have a different experience to what I had growing up in my village — that, for me, would be a dream come true.
