Inspired to follow law career from books read as a child
Lulama Mtanga Legal Consultancy founder Lulama Mtanga says her earliest memory of being introduced to the subject of law was when she read William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.
“It was an English setwork book, I think, in my Grade 7 year,” Mtanga said.
“I was impressed by Portia’s strong and confident personality, and the sense of justice meted out by her character in the book.
“I later came across a book,
The Trial of Andrew Zondo by Fatima Meer, which was missing a number of its first few pages.
“This was a real-life story set in South Africa, not fiction.
“That book sealed my interest in law.
“I was incensed by what I perceived to be the travesty of justice in Andrew Zondo’s trial.”
Engcobo-born Mtanga has 20 years’ experience specialising in competition law.
Her training ground was at the Competition Commission of SA, where she worked in the legal services division.
This position exposed her to all aspects of the commission’s work and across the length and breadth of competition law, early in her career.
“I attended Daliwonga Senior Secondary School in Woodhouse, Cofimvaba, which was a boarding school.
“This high school was my aunt’s decision, she overruled my high school choice where I had been accepted.
“I had not even applied to the Cofimvaba school.
“I bade farewell to Engcobo during my tertiary years.”
Before establishing her own law consultancy, Mtanga was headhunted by a law firm, Bowmans, where she started as an associate, and six months later was promoted to senior associate, and then in March 2007 was made partner.
It was at Bowmans that she gained in-depth and broad experience in advising private and public clients.
She was also involved in other aspects of law firm management, such as recruitment of both junior and senior professionals, as well as in the management of the firm.
She was at Bowmans for 10 years, seven of which were as a partner, and five serving as a member of the firm’s executive committee.
“I founded Lulama Mtanga Legal Consultancy in 2014.
“I was then approached by the South African Competition Tribunal to assist it with its caseload from September 1 to December 31 2016.
“In 2015, I was approached by the Competition Commission to serve as a panellist in the Grocery Retail Market Inquiry, a role I commenced in 2016 until November 25 2019, when the inquiry completed its work.
“I also chaired some of the inquiry’s hearings,” she said.
Mtanga serves as an independent non-executive director on the boards of three private companies, which include a listed company, in which she also serves as the chair of its social and ethics committee.
She also serves as a member of the audit committees in all three companies.
Speaking of her motivation to achieve in her career, Mtanga said she had been particularly struck by the story of how Xerox was found, when one of her legal researches led her to it.
“It fascinated me how one man started the business from scratch and how, over time, it grew into one of the bestknown printing paper brands globally.
“From the Xerox story I learnt that, as the Chinese proverb says, ‘The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones’.
“All the international corporations and famous brands that we now see started as small businesses.”