MAIN AREAS OF LAW

Tatenda is the Partner in the Corporate & Commercial Division for Minchin & Kelly. She advises on all commercial corporate areas of law but her main speciality is project finance, debt and equity market transactions and energy projects. She also has an interest in public private partnerships and has recently been working on a number of transactions dealing with PPPs. She is recently working on the first Coal to Liquids Project in Botswana.. Her specialty exposes her to vast areas of law and as a result she also has experience in the mineral, property and mergers & acquisitions sector. A majority of her work involves cross border transactions and she is a regular advisor to multinational banks and organisations particularly with providing them with ISDA and custodian & insolvency opinions.

WORK HIGHLIGHTS

Her notable work was advising a listed property company on the first ever establishment of a special security purpose vehicle that would hold mortgage bonds for and on behalf of credit beneficiaries in Botswana. She engaged the Registrar of Deeds and was successful in arguing that a security purpose vehicle would not contravene section 52 of the Deeds Registry Act which provides that an agent cannot hold a mortgage bond for and on behalf of a principal.

SIGNIFICANT CLIENTS

Tatenda’s clients vary across all industries including; Botswana Oil Limited, IFSC, African Import Export Bank, Letlole la Rona Limited, Vivo Energy (Proprietary) Limited, First National Bank Botswana Limited, Stanbic Bank Botswana Limited, Botswana Development Corporation, Bank of Scotland, Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund, Hollard Insurance Limited, Aon Botswana, Old Mutual, Government Entities and regularly works with law firms outside the jurisdiction including DLA Piper UK LLP, Simmons & Simmons LLP, Norton Rose, Bowmans and Baker McKenzie.

CAREER

Tatenda began her career at Armstrongs Attorneys in 2009 and was made a senior associate in 2012. In 2017 she joined Minchin & Kelly as a senior associate and became a Partner in July 2019.

• LLM, University of Cape town (2010)
• LLB, Rhodes University (2006)
• Year of admission as an attorney: 2009
• Year of admission as a conveyancer: 2010
• Year of admission as a notary public: 2010

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

• Member of the Law Society

JURISDICTIONS

Admitted in Botswana (2009)

LANGUAGES

English, Shona

PUBLICATIONS

Contribution to the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index 2014; Women, Business and the Law 2014: Removing Restrictions to Enhance Gender Equality for the World Bank

Contribution to the Doing Business in 2014: Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises and Doing Business in a More Transparent World for the World Bank.

PERSONAL

Tatenda practices law in Gaborone, Botswana.