Mbuyiselo “Mbuyi” Ngwenda was one of the prominent leaders of the South African metalworkers’ union NUMSA (National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa) in the 1990s.

He began as a shop steward — an elected workplace union representative — at the Volkswagen South Africa motor plant. He later became a union political educator, regional organiser, and NUMSA secretary in the Eastern Cape. In 1996, he became NUMSA’s deputy general secretary and later general secretary of the union; NUMSA’s official historical list gives his term as 1996–1999.