Mziwabantu Dayimani

Mziwabantu Dayimani was born and brought up in Bathurst (near Port Alfred) in the Eastern Cape. He studied law at the University of Stellenbosch. During his time at Stellenbosch he was a Research Fellow in the Research Unit for Legal and Constitutional Interpretation and a member of the Student Court.

After graduating Mr Dayimani joined Cliffe Dekker Inc, one of the big five law firms in South Africa and remained with them for a period of six years. He is an admitted attorney of the High Court of South Africa and is also a Notary Public (South Africa). During his time with Cliffe Dekker, Mr Dayimani progressed through the ranks having started as a Candidate Attorney and was promoted to being an Associate at the end of 2004 and was later promoted to being a Senior Associate in 2007.

Mziwabantu Dayimani joined the NEF in March 2008 as a Legal Advisor and was promoted to Senior Legal Advisor in 2009. He was later promoted to being a Manager in the CEO’s Office in September 2010 and was appointed as a General Counsel in March 2011.

Mr Dayimani has very strong corporate finance background having spent most of his time in practice specializing in banking, finance and regulatory law. He was part of the law firm’s team of lawyers who provided legal advice in the drafting of some of the aspects of the BEE Codes of Good Practice. He has acted as lead legal advisor in various corporate and commercial law and structured finance transactions. Mr Dayimani also spent some of his time as a debt capital markets lawyer and
played meaningful role in the drafting of and advising on commercial paper documentation and got an opportunity of being seconded to the Bond Exchange of South Africa in 2006. He also has solid experience in working with commercial litigation and public finance law and tender regulation.

His current areas of focus include venture capital, corporate finance, commercial law, post investment support to transactions and regulation of state owned entities. Mr Dayimani oversees the Legal Department of the NEF, the Post Investment Department, legal compliance and certain administrative aspects in the CEO’s office.