Elliot Mngadi was born in Roosboom around 1918. Alongside Peter Brown also a leading member of the LP, Mngadi spearheaded the cause of black farmers in Natal who were affected by policies of the apartheid government.
In March 1954 Mngadi joined the LPSA at a house meeting in Ladysmith that was organized by the provincial congress of the party. At the time he was employed by the Native Affairs Department (NAD) as a messenger of court. When the apartheid government began forcibly removing people in the so called black spots in Natal, Mngadi who was also a landowner mobilized other African landowners to form an organization of their own. Subsequently, Mngadi resigned from his job at the NAD and began working fulltime as an organizer for areas around Ladysmith affected by removals in April 1957.
By May 1957 Mngadi’s work reached areas such as the Dannhauser districtthat were under the African National Congress (ANC) He worked closely with Gabriel Nyembe, a member of the executive council of the ANC. As a result of his work, the Northern Natal African Landowners' Association (NNALA) was formed around October 1957. The main of the NNALA was to resist forced removals being implemented. Mngadi served as the Organising Secretary of the Association receiving wages from the Association.
In 1960 Mngadi was arrested and detained by the police under the State of Emergency regulations. On 6 June 1964 Mngadi was banned under the Suppression of Communism Act. He was confined to the district of Ladysmith for five years. Peter Brown then assisted him to set up a shop selling fish and chips in Roosboom. While under banning orders, he was refused permission to attend public church services. Mngadi was instrumental in establishing the Roosboom Council with other landowners in an attempt to fight against the removal of people of Roosboom. However, despite his efforts in 1976 people of the area of Roosboom were forcibly removed to Ezakheni.
Once in the new area Mngadi served on the Ezakheni township council to advance issues of development. He was later elected as a councillor for his ward. . In 1979 Mngadi became the first mayor of Ezakheni Township under the administration of the KwaZulu government. This created suspicion amongst some members of the community as he was perceived as being too close to apartheid system. However, the decision of Mngadi and his town Council to support the community boycott of public transport owing to the increase of fares restored a measure of trust in the community. Subsequent to his support of the boycott, he was invited by the mayor of Montgomery in Alabama in the United States to become an honorary citizen.
Mngadi died in Ezakeni Township on 20 November 1988.