The Madibaz YouthLab is a space that seeks to focus on youth development within the Nelson Mandela University and the greater community. The YouthLab seeks to establish spaces that ensure co-creation through an innovative approach to address the complex social challenges that confront the youth of South Africa and beyond. The YouthLab seeks to achieve this aim by using its three-core organisational principles such as Connect, Learn and Create. Empowered by the motto of the Nelson Mandela University: Change the world, and in line with the Mandela University's position of being in service to the society. The YouthLab strikes to be a space that enables critical engagements on contemporary issues while seeking to provide solutions for society. It advocates for the development of change agents that advance systems thinking and critical pedagogy.

The Madibaz YouthLab theme for 2022 is Thriving Community invest in Youth Development to Activate Agency Capable to Drive Transformation. It is through this theme that the YouthLab seeks to establish a culture of dialogue and educational engagements that embed the values of his namesake Nelson Mandela through building a society of young leaders who advocates for social transformation. This is through invoking activism across a civic ethos that dismantles existing vestiges of anti-development. Furthermore, encourages the learning of African philosophical values through human development.