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Ms. Tumi Dlamini is the founder of the Thinabantu Foundation. The Foundation was established to address and respond to the social and economic needs of the underserved and underprivileged communities in the townships and rural areas of South Africa. It was born from a desire to give back and to make a contribution to poverty-stricken communities in South Africa.
Tumi is an Advisor to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), an organ of the African Union (AU). She is an attorney with a multi-disciplinary background in African Development, Governance, corporate law and public policy. At APRM, she focusses on Corporate Governance and Global Partnerships. She promotes policy reforms to strengthen good governance practices, protection of Human Rights, Environmental Rights in non-state sectors in Africa, (business sector, NGOs and other Associations). She has assessed organizational governance practices in several countries, including, Ghana, Egypt, Liberia, Senegal, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa, Ethiopia. She also chairs the Committee on the development of African Corporate Governance Principles and Guidelines, the first ever framework for Corporate Governance in Africa and which pioneers the concept of Purpose + Profit as the foundation of good governance for enterprises.
Tumi is an admitted Attorney of the High Court of South Africa and became the first black woman partner at Bowmans, an international law firm in South Africa. Recently, she founded the Organisation for Global Africa Cooperation, a platform for cooperation that brings together thought-leaders in business, government and civil society to work together and for the private sector to play a critical role to contribute towards Africa’s developmental goals and objectives.
Ms. Dlamini is an experienced Board member and has served on several boards including Foundations and Listed Companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. She is passionate about promoting access to quality education and was Chairperson of the Board of CIDA Empowerment Fund, established to secure funding for SA’s first tertiary education institution for the economically disadvantaged rural South Africans. She is the current President of Harvard University Association South Africa where she promotes access to opportunities to study at Harvard University for talented but disenfranchised South Africans. She has recently been appointed to Chair the South Africa Bid for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
She holds a Masters in Public Administration and Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, where she was awarded the prestigious Harvard South Africa Fellowship Program and the Kistefos Fellowship, a B Social Sciences Degree and a postgraduate degree in LLB both from the University of Cape Town.
Our aim is to make a positive impact on the lives of people. We put people first. Always.
The Thinabantu Foundation is centered on the philosophy of UBUNTU – humaneness, generosity, compassion, empathy and empowerment of the people whom we are part of and who helped shape us.
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