Thandi Thomo was born in Soweto where she completed primary school and until 1983 she was in Limpopo where she completed her high school education.
Returning to Gauteng she continued her studies at the University of the Witwatersrand and obtained degrees in BComm (General) with Business Information Systems as major and BSc (Quantity Surveying). She studied towards the MSc (Project Management) at Pretoria University and completed the coursework (1999 – 2003). She is registered as Professional Construction Project Manager with the South African Council for the Project and Construction Management Professions.
She started working as a receptionist in 1993 at the Joint Education Trust but was soon promoted to Programmer and Systems Analyst. She worked as a Programmer and Systems Analyst at Grinaker Computing Services, Standard Bank of South Africa, BKS Incorporated in Johannesburg and a quantity-surveying firm, Llale and Company, where she did cost optimisation system on stock piling for Eskom at the Majuba Power Station from 1994 to 1999. Between 1999 and 2002 she worked for the South African Reserve Bank as a Project Manager doing building-construction related projects. In 2000 she was also involved in part-time tutoring for first year Business Management System students, second year Management Information students and third year Systems and Information Strategy students studying towards a B Administration degree with Thames University through the Midrand Business College.
She started her career in the public service started in 2002 when she joined the Department of Trade and Industry as Director where she headed the Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) Management Unit and project-managed the construction of the office campus to where she relocated that department and its selected agencies in 2005; between 2005 and 2007 she was employed as PPP Project Officer for the Department of Correctional Services; in 2006 she assisted the Project Manager of the Department of Science and Technology in preparation for their office relocation; and from 2008 she was at the Department of Minerals and Energy as Project Manager for office accommodation.
In April 2010, Thandi joined the GCIS as Chief Director: Property and Facilities Management to manage construction-related projects, relocations to other premises and to assist the GCIS team with building-maintenance.