Phumelele is a lawyer by background, having been admitted as attorney of the High Court of South Africa in 1995. His career spanning some 30 years, has included a broad focus on infrastructure project financing, mining and energy law, oil and gas law, environmental and construction, and corporate and commercial law among others. He has previously worked at some of South Africa’s pre-eminent firms such as ENS Africa and Werksmans Inc, as partner and director in those firms’ corporate and commercial law departments. His experience includes overall energy project procurement and financing in the law context, with experience in drafting and negotiation of project finance documentation for energy generation projects using wind, solar, gas, hydro, coal, and nuclear technologies. He has also worked for a project development firm that successfully funded, procured, constructed and operated numerous wind and solar PV energy generation projects procured under South Africa’s REIPP programme. Phumelele was also part of the ESI reform team that designed South Africa’s wholesale electricity market, obtaining training in this regard from live markets in Singapore and New Zealand.
Phumelele’s academic qualifications are as follows: B-Proc (UKZN), Master of Laws LLM (Georgetown University, USA) and MAP (Wits Business School).