My Journey - Our founder’s history in his own words:

• 2003 – 2005:  Junior Lector and Researcher, University of Stellenbosch

• 2006 – 2014: Senior Associate, Litigation at ENSAfrica

• 2014 – date:  Group General Counsel, RTT Group of Companies

• 2025:  CEO, Counsel Consulting

 I grew up on a farm.  The value of hard work (and necessity of smart work) was preached and modelled to me from a very young age. Some of my earliest work memories are of my father and grandfather, covered in dust, smiling and teaching me some or other farming (or life) skill.  It also taught me from infancy that work always includes teaching – a teachable worker is a valuable worker, but inevitably also a successful one.

 My first informal employment included diverse jobs such as being an assistant in a bookshop, as a waiter at various restaurants, clearing properties for construction and even a stint in the South African National Defence Force (completing phase one of basic training in December/January 1998/9) where I ended graduating at the top of my class. My chief takeaway during this period of my life was that there are no substitutes for hard work, but that smart hard work is exponentially more effective than hard work alone.

 After completing my LLB degree, I entered the formal employment market in 2003 as a teaching and administrative assistant (with job description as “Junior Lecturer”) at the University of Stellenbosch.  My duties included conducting research for my principals, teaching duties, writing and presenting academic papers (locally and internationally), editorial assistance on a number of academic books and articles and project management in the academic space. During this period, I became a lifelong student of the art of communication – The effect of what you have to say (or write or teach) is directly proportionate to your skill to communicate that message.

 In 2006, I took up a candidate attorney contract with SHG (which later in 2006 merged with Edward Nathan Friedman to form what is present known as ENSAfrica, the largest law firm on the continent), supervised by Cecil Gelbart.  I was deployed to the litigation department.  Within three months, our team dwindled from 8 people to three (for a variety of reasons) and as a raw candidate attorney I was tasked with running a senior litigator’s practice on my own.  The experience had a profound effect on my professional development by encouraging me to innovate, endure and excel.  After finishing my training and being admitted as an attorney, I ran a litigation practice with a focus on contractual, logistics, administrative and building litigation. I was promoted to Senior Associate and finished my time at ENSAfrica running my practice under the auspices of the then Chief of the Litigation Department, John Zieff.  I count as the primary lesson from my 8 and 1/2 years at ENSAfrica the following:  the 3 A’s[1] (Ability, Availability and Affability), Ability is replaceable, Availability is inevitably limited, but Affability is the fuel of relationship and sustained mutual commercial value.

 In December 2013, I was approached by one of my then clients, CourierIT SA (Pty) Ltd (CourierIT), to join the Group as a General Council with the designation General Manager: Legal.  I joined the Group in April 2014 and assumed responsibility for the legal affairs of CourierIT, RemailIT (an international remailing business), FreightIT (an international freight business) and WarehouseIT (a warehousing concern).  This included all aspects of contractual drafting and management (bespoke and standard), IP registration and maintenance, external counsel management (both litigious and corporate commercial matters), regulatory compliance (including POPIA and OHS) and HR conflict resolution and advice. I fundamentally restructured the legal affairs of the Group, saving it approximately R2 – 3 Million rand per annum.  In 2014, the responsibility for the Goods in Transit portfolio of the Group was also passed to me. I managed to reduce the “claims to finalisation” from approximately 9 - 12 months to roughly 35 days. 

In 2015 I served as chief in-house counsel during the acquisition by the RTT Group (Pty) Ltd  of 70% of the shares of CourierIT and WarehouseIT.  My responsibilities included the drafting and negotiation of all agreements, management of the external legal counsel, control of the legal due diligence and execution of the company secretarial aspects of the transaction (both for the trusts and company structures involved). I also advised on the executive employment agreements, restraints of trade and best structure for the transaction. In the same year I also took over the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) portfolio (a new portfolio as the Group has no prior OHS program) for CourierIT.  With a budget of approximately 1/3 of that quoted by professional service companies, we managed to bring CourierIT on the international 18001 OHS standard and were certified compliant in 2016.

Also in 2016, I was the lead in-house counsel for the RTT Group in the disposal of its Revert business to the PSG Group.  I was responsible for the final vetting and approval of the contractual matrix of the transaction, the service agreements between the sold entity and the RTT group and the due diligence facilitation. In 2017 I took responsibility for the Training team and with the buy in of the team, we transformed the team from a dysfunctional group to a cutting edge, motivated and engaged team that adds great value to CourierIT. In this respect I was responsible for the development of functional and user friendly RICA, FICA (KYC and AML) and POPIA training material, used not only in CourierIT, but across the whole group of companies. In 2017 I was also appointed on the Senior Management Team of the RTT Group. 

In 2017, I was the lead in-house counsel for CourierIT during the share swop and sale transaction in terms of which the minority shareholders in CourierIT exchanged their shares in CourierIT for shares in RTT Group (Pty) Ltd, the holding company of the various business in the group.  I was again responsible for the drafting and negotiation of all agreements, management of the external legal counsel, control of the legal due diligence and execution of the company secretarial aspects of the transaction (both for the trusts and company structures involved). I was also responsible for the OHS transition of CourierIT from the 18001 certification, to the new ISO45001 certification, which we achieved in 2021.

Since September 2022, I have served as the Group General Counsel, taking additional responsibility for the claims (insurance) and legal teams of the whole RTT Group.  I restructured the claims team and delivered a Group record EBITDA performance through appropriate claims management and close liaison with the Risk Teams and Insurance Service providers.  I also served as counsel for the divisionalisation of the Group, advising on the appropriate processes and contractual arrangements flowing out of the group restructure.

I was also responsible for the insurance and legal affairs of Pingo (Pty) Ltd, which operates the Checkers 60/60 delivery model. In 2024, I was chief inhouse counsel in the disposal by RTT of its shareholding in Pingo, to the Shoprite Checkers Group, managing the share sale transaction, services agreement, lender approvals and competition aspects (a R500m deal). I also managed the disposal by RTT of its chain stores operating division (with a turnover of R500m) to Value Logistics, being involved in the employee transfers (sec 197), commercials and competition aspects.

 Since September 2025, I have served as the Chief Executive Officer of Counsel Consulting, a bespoke consulting firm.  We serve the legal, insurance and risk management needs of a range of clients, spanning industries as diverse as logistics, financial services and payment facilitation, project planning, agri business, leisure and tourism, and infrastructure development.  Our role is primarily to provide advice and guidance on contracts, legal matters, leadership and strategic planning, in the capacity as outsourced general counsel.

[1] As explained by David Maister in his seminal work: Maister et al The Trusted Advisor (2000).