Prof. Mandla Mchunu is a lawyer by training. He obtained his LLM from Bristol University in England. He lectured at the universities of the North and Natal and was a guest professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Up to 1996, he was the Director for the Center for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Natal. Prof. Mchunu started the Street Law Programme, which is taught in all universities in South Africa today.

He is a highly respected individual in political, legal, community and business circles. He held the position of Chief Electoral Officer of the Independent Electoral Commission from November 1997 to December 2000. He was the Chief Accounting, Administrative and Electoral Officer for the national and provincial elections conducted in South Africa on 02 June 1999 and the Municipal Elections conducted on 05 December 2000. During the 1994 elections, he served as First Deputy Secretary of the Adjudication Secretariat. His behind- the-scenes work in the run up to South Africa’s first          

democratic elections on 27 April 1994 contributed immensely to securing a substantially free and fair election in strife-torn Kwa-Zulu Natal Province. He has travelled widely on electoral missions, as a consultant for the UN he has led electoral assistance missions into Sierra Leone, Pakistan etc.; and led electoral observer missions into Mexico, Timor-Leste, Togo etc.

Prof. Mandla Mchunu worked for the South African Government at national level as Deputy Director General in the Department of Constitutional Development and Provincial Affairs from July 1996 to November 1997. His major responsibilities entailed the drafting of policy and its presentation to Parliament, the co-ordination and rationalization of laws, the formation of formal structures for traditional leaders, the development and definition of inter-governmental relations and the institution of a national educational programme on the Constitution. Prof. Mchunu was also part of the process that gave South Africa its final Constitution in 1996.  

In the year 2001 he founded MM&A a company specializing in Electoral and Democratic Governance Systems.  In 2002 he led Mchunu Mashinini &Associates Consulting (Pty) Ltd (MM&A) on the compilation of the Electronic Voters Register for the 2003 Nigerian Elections.  His last public office was as Director-General for the Provincial Government of KwaZulu-Natal. He is the current Executive Chairman of the Africore Group, and the founding director of Africorp (Pty) Ltd. He is the Deputy Chairman of SAAB Grintek Defence (Pty) Ltd and is  a member of the African Advisory Council (AAC) of Heineken Intl.

He has delivered many academic and community papers in different conferences, symposia etc. His work experience is cited on many websites on the net. He is a visionary, an avid reader, a keen art collector an appreciator; and enjoys films, watching sports like boxing, soccer and outdoor athletics (track and field).