Attorneys, Practitioners, And Former Commissioners

Advocate Makopi is the sole director of Vukonamatimba Trading (Pty) Ltd, a member of the panel of service providers for the Services SETA (2024–2027), and a member of the National Bar Council of South Africa. He has spent most of his professional life in the public service, beginning at the Transkei Department of Commerce before moving into senior advisory roles at the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of Land Affairs, and the Department of Communications, where he was closely involved in SOE oversight and governance for entities including the SABC, the South African Post Office, and Sentech. He also serves as a lead verifier at the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO), sits as a director of several other companies, and is a small-scale farmer and entrepreneur outside of his legal and consulting work.

• SOE Governance
• Public Policy
• Business Consulting

Founder and Managing Director of Bangani Labour Law Practitioners, Tommy is a published author, consultant, and strategist with scholarly interests in capacity building in the labour market and in the intersection of business, society, and public policy. As an independent researcher, he wrote and published Just The Facts: Seven Steps For Conducting Employment Investigations, equipping HR and ER professionals, compliance officials, auditors, security managers, and investigators with the tools to conduct fair, legally compliant workplace investigations and minimise the risk of labour disputes. His consulting career includes establishing a new Employee Relations directorate, with its own systems and operating procedures, for a provincial government department, and contributing to labour market policy at the then Department of Labour.

• Workplace Investigations
• Labour Law
• Published Author

Founding director of Breakeven 59 (Pty) Ltd, an ETDP-SETA and SABPP-accredited human capital institution focused on building, managing, and facilitating workplace and community relations, Kaizer has over 45 years of experience in industrial and employee relations. He began his career as an Industrial Agent/Inspector for the National Industrial Council for the Motor Industry, and rose through the trade union movement with CCAWUSA/SACCAWU as shop steward, union official, and General Secretary. He is a senior part-time Commissioner of the CCMA, and has contributed to the NEDLAC Framework's initiatives on job insecurity and business distress. He has distinguished himself as a workplace improvement facilitator, building cooperative workplace relations and functional stakeholder forums, and is also an experienced mediator, leadership mentor, and workplace-relations facilitator.

• Mediation
• CCMA
• Employee Relations

Founding Managing Director of Equity Zone (Pty) Ltd, a labour relations consulting firm supporting clients with internal relations, policy development, and Labour Law compliance across South Africa. He began his career in the engineering industry before moving up through the ranks of the trade union movement with NUMSA, then into the private sector at Nissan South Africa as a Corporate Affairs Officer. He later joined TFMC, which became Bidvest Facilities Management, first as a senior Transformation Specialist and ultimately in Employee Relations at a senior executive level, including membership of the Bidvest Board of Retirement Fund Trustees and several other professional organisations in the labour relations industry.

• Labour Relations
• Compliance
• ER Consulting