Noluthando Dorian Bahedile "Thandi" Orleyn (born 13 January 1956) is a South African lawyer and businesswoman who is currently the chairperson of

Impala Platinum Impala Platinum Holdings Limited or Implats is a South African holding company that owns several companies which operate mines that produce platinum and platinum group metals, as well as nickel, copper and cobalt. Its most significant mine is the ...

and BP Southern Africa. She rose to prominence in the business world as a co-founder and executive director of Peotona Holdings, a prominent

black economic empowerment Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) is a policy of the South African government which aims to facilitate broader participation in the economy by black people. A form of affirmative action, it is intended especially to redress the inequalities cr ...

(BEE) investment vehicle. Before that, she was director of the public

Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) is an independent tribunal which adjudicates labour disputes in South Africa. It was established in November 1996 in terms of Section 112 of the Labour Relations Act, 1995, which ...

and a practicing lawyer.

Early life and education

Orleyn was born in New Brighton, a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

outside

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...

in the former

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope (), commonly referred to as the Cape Province () and colloquially as The Cape (), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa. It encompassed the old Cape Co ...

. She matriculated at

Inanda Seminary School Inanda Seminary School is one of the oldest schools for girls in South Africa. It was founded in 1869 at Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal, Inanda, a settlement just over north of Durban, by Daniel Lindley, Daniel and Lucy Lindley, an American missionary cou ...

in 1974 and went on to study law at the

University of Fort Hare The University of Fort Hare () is a public university in Alice, Eastern Cape, Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was a key institution of higher education for Africans from 1916 to 1959 when it offered a Western-style academic education to ...

and

University of South Africa The University of South Africa (UNISA) is the largest university system in South Africa by enrollment. It attracts a third of all higher education students in South Africa. Through various colleges and affiliates, UNISA has over 400,000 student ...

. She became involved in anti-apartheid activism as a teenager in the

and remained so after moving to

Katlehong Katlehong is a large township in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. It is 28 km south-east of Johannesburg and south of Germiston between two other townships of Thokoza and Vosloorus next to the N3 highway. It forms part of the City of E ...

, where

Bertha Gxowa Bertha Gxowa, OLS, (née Mashaba; 26 November 1934 - 19 November 2010) was an anti-apartheid and women's rights activist and trade unionist in South Africa. Biography Gxowa was born in Germiston. She first attended the Thokoza Primary School ...

became her political mentor.

Legal career

Orleyn spent the first decade of her career in legal practice at the progressive

Legal Resources Centre The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) is a human rights organisation based in South Africa with offices in Johannesburg (including a Constitutional Litigation Unit), Cape Town, Durban and Grahamstown. It was founded in 1979 by a group of prominent South ...

before becoming national director of the Independent Mediation Service of South Africa during the post-apartheid transition. Between 1997 and 2002, she was national director of the post-apartheid

(CCMA). Part of her tenure there was consumed by a prolonged internal controversy over the sacking of the commission's national registrar, Monde Zimema. After leaving the CCMA, she returned to law practice at commercial law firm Routledge Modise. She also spent time as an adjunct professor in

labour law Labour laws (also spelled as labor laws), labour code or employment laws are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship be ...

at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

and co-wrote a book on the law of workplace sexual harassment, ''Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Law, Policies and Processes'', that was published in 2005.

Business career

In 2005 Orleyn co-founded an investment vehicle called Peotona Holdings with

Cheryl Carolus Cheryl Carolus (born 27 May 1958) is a South African politician. She was born in Silvertown, on the Cape Flats, Cape Town. Carolus became involved in politics while still at school and became an activist after joining the United Democratic Fro ...

Dolly Mokgatle Dolly may refer to: Tools *Dolly (tool), a portable anvil *Dolly pot, also known as a dolly, a portable tool used for crushing small quantities of ore-bearing rock, by hand, in a process known as dollying * A posser, also known as a dolly, used ...

, and

Wendy Lucas-Bull Wendy Elizabeth Lucas-Bull (''née'' ''Adair''; born 11 September 1953) is a South African businesswoman, banker and corporate executive, who served as the chairperson of Absa Group, a large pan-African financial services group, with subsidiari ...

. The company launched that year in a high-profile R3.8-billion

(BEE) transaction that saw Peotona, in partnership with

Manne Dipico Manne Emsley Dipico, first Premier of the Northern Cape Province, South Africa, was born in Kimberley on 21 April 1959. He was appointed Chairman of the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (Necsa) in 2006. He is Chairman of Ponahalo Holdings ...

's Ponaholo Investment Holdings, acquire a minority stake in

De Beers Consolidated Mines The De Beers Group is a South African–British corporation that specializes in the diamond industry, including mining, exploitation, retail, inscription, grading, trading and industrial diamond manufacturing. The company is active in open-pi ...

. Peotona was also a lead partner in a R1.1-billion BEE deal with Lafarge in 2006, and it did a R1.1-billion BEE deal with electronics group Reunert in 2007. As part of the latter deal, Orleyn became a non-executive director of Reunert in May 2007. In 2008

Empowerdex Empowerdex (Pty) Ltd is a South African company which provides services related to Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) compliance. Founded in 2001, it was an early pioneer in the industry of independent BEE verification and ratings. It also conducts ...

ranked her ninth on its list of South Africa's 50 most powerful black directors, and by 2012 she was the fifth richest woman in the country according to the ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' Rich List. In 2011, Orleyn was appointed as chairperson of the board of BP Southern Africa, replacing Rams Ramashia. She was a board member of

(Implats) between 2004 and 2015 and returned in 2020 as Implats chairperson, replacing Mandla Gantsho. She has also served on the boards of

Toyota South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic ...

and Ceramic Industries.

Other activities

Among her other stints in public service, Orleyn has served as chairperson of the remuneration committee of the

South African Reserve Bank The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is the central bank of South Africa. It was established in 1921 after Parliament passed an act, the "Currency and Bank Act of 10 August 1920", as a direct result of the abnormal monetary and financial condi ...

; as chairperson of the council of the University of Fort Hare; and as a director of the Ombudsman for Banking Services,

Cricket South Africa Cricket South Africa aka CSA is the governing body for both professional and amateur cricket in South Africa. In 1991, the separate South African Cricket Union and the South African Cricket Board merged to form the United Cricket Board of South ...

, and the Industrial Development Corporation. In 2019 she was a member of the seven-member selection panel, chaired by

Trevor Manuel Trevor Andrew Manuel (born 31 January 1956) is a retired South African politician and former anti-apartheid activist who served in the cabinet of South Africa between 1994 and 2014. He was the South African Department of Finance, Minister of ...

, that advised President

Cyril Ramaphosa Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa (born 17 November 1952) is a South African businessman and politician serving as the 5th and current President of South Africa since 2018. A former Anti-Apartheid Movement, anti-apartheid activist and trade union leade ...

to appoint Edward Kieswetter as commissioner of the

South African Revenue Service The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is the revenue service of the South African government. It administers the country's tax system and customs service, and enforces compliance with related legislation. It is governed by the SARS Act 34 of ...

. She is a member of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

(ANC) and in March 2022 was appointed to serve in the party's internal National Disciplinary Committee. She is also a member of the board of the South African branch of the

International Women's Forum The International Women's Forum (IWF), founded in 1974 as the Women's Forum of New York, is an invitation-only women's organization with some 7,800 members. Its mission is "to support the women leaders of today and tomorrow". The IWF hosts two co ...

and the chairperson of the Legal Resources Centre.

Honours

In 2025, the University of Fort Hare awarded Orleyn an honorary doctorate.

Personal life

She is married to David Sekiti, with whom she has three children.

References

External links

Ms Thandi Orleyn
at

Peotona Group Holdings
website {{DEFAULTSORT:Orleyn, Thandi 1956 births Living people People from Gqeberha South African businesspeople University of Fort Hare alumni University of South Africa alumni 21st-century South African businesswomen 20th-century South African lawyers 21st-century South African lawyers 20th-century South African women lawyers 21st-century South African women lawyers