Thembani Bukula graduated with BSc Engineering from Natal University and a Post Graduate Diploma in Engineering Business Management from Warwick University. He is a registered Professional Engineer with a Government Certificate of Competency (GCC).

Most recently, Mr Bukula was the Managing Member of IJANGA Consulting Services, focusing on specialised engineering projects as well as the Director of Business Development at Bytes Managed Services. He also serves as a Non-Executive Director of National Laboratories Association. His career started at Yelland Engineering as Design Engineer. He then joined M&E Design as a Project Engineer before joining Eskom in 1993 as Transmission as Technical Services engineer.

He was seconded to KEMA, The Netherlands in June 1995, where he worked as a test engineer and in 1997 he was appointed as Technical Services Manager (KwaZulu-Natal and Free State Region) where he was responsible for the operating, maintenance and refurbishment of the Eskom - Transmission national grid. During this period he served on the High Voltage and Substations Research Steering Committees to evaluating and analysing research projects as well as providing technical expertise to the Mozambique Transmission Company (MOTRACO) project.

In 1999 he was promoted to head the National Performance & Technical Audits Division of the ESKOM - Transmission Group.

In 2001, he joined the National Electrical Test Facility (NETFA - SABS) as the Divisional Managing Director responsible for transformation of the test laboratories into commercially viable entities and in June 2002 he was promoted to be the Managing Director of the SABS Testing & Conformity Services.

In March 2004, he was appointed as the Managing Director of National Data Systems - Specialised Services. He then formed IJANGA Consulting Services in 2005 where he conducts consulting services for specialised engineering projects including the China North West Power 765kV commissioning and maintenance planning project, implementation of Quality Management Systems (e.g. ISO 9000) and various design and/or technical evaluation or appraisal projects.