Chimane is a highly qualified seasoned commercial lawyer who has been in the legal field since 2001.

He has extensive experience in various areas of  Corporate Law, IT Law, Contract Law (negotiations and drafting), Commercial Litigation as well as Mergers and Acquisitions. He has worked on major deals across Africa and Middle East. Chimane’s vast experience has been acquired through working largely for blue chip companies as an in-house executive legal director.

Chimane started his career as a lecturer at the University of Fort Hare before pursuing his LLM in Commercial and Labour Law with the University of Stellenbosch in 1999. He served the first part of his article of clerkship with Adams and Adams in Pretoria prior to ceding same to Norton Rose Fulbright (formally known as Deneys Reitz Inc.) in Johannesburg. During his articles with Norton Rose Fulbright, Chimane was awarded a scholarship to study in Rome (Italy) at the International Development Law Organisation.

After being admitted as attorney in 2001 continued to work in the commercial department of Norton Rose Fulbright subsequent to which he was head-hunted by Sasol for the position of Legal Counsel. At Sasol, Chimane worked on the launching of Sasol’s network of filling stations and this included, amongst others, the drafting of franchise agreements, sale of business agreements as well as engaging in competition law litigation.

In 2004, Chimane joined Oracle Corporation South Africa as the executive legal director and company secretary. His responsibilities at Oracle included the drafting and negotiations of multi-million rands software license agreements. He was also exposed to a lot of mergers and acquisitions activities as the local legal lead for Oracle in South Africa when Oracle embarked on an acquisition spree of a number of multinational software and hardware companies including the likes of Siebel, PeopleSoft and Sun Microsystems. Furthermore, as a company secretary, Chimane was responsible, amongst others, for the corporate and statutory compliance as well as the induction of board members.

Between 2012 and 2017, Chimane worked as the General Manager for Legal Services at MultiChoice South Africa where he put together and led a team of highly skilled lawyers and support staff. At MultiChoice, Chimane worked on some of the most cutting-edge legal briefs ranging from business restructuring to multi-million rands litigation matters. In addition to providing leadership on transformation matters, Chimane acquinted himself well as a reliable partner for the business.

In 2017, Chimane was appointed as the legal director for Sage Africa and Middle East. He had the privilege to work in locations like Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Lagos (Nigeria) and Nairobi (Kenya). Chimane initiated compliance programs and training in areas such as Anti-Bribery and Corruption as well as Sanctions Policies.

After almost 20 years as a legal executive, Chimane decided to establish Lelaka Attorneys, a legal firm based in Johannesburg. Lelaka Attorneys not only focuses on corporate commercial law but also has expertise in other areas of the law that ordinary persons may face from time to time.