Reverend Chikane is the current Chairperson of Kagiso Trust.

As a student,  he became politically aware, being influenced largely by the Black Consciousness ideology. Thus, he became involved in the activities of the South African Student Organisation (SASO) at  the University of the North, where he was studying towards a Bachelor of Science degree. His political activism led to his repeated detention which in turn disrupted his education, forcing him to leave the university in 1974.  It is at this point that he worked for the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) as a layman before being ordained as a Minister in 1980.

Reverend Chikane later continued his education obtaining a Master of Arts degree from Harvard University and a Master of Theology from the University of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal).

In 1979, Reverend Chikane completed his training as a pastor at the Apostolic Faith Mission. He was subsequently defrocked in 1981 due to his political involvement. After the end of apartheid, he was re-instated, as a pastor. Reverend Chikane joined the Institute for Contextual Theology, a Christian think-tank within the South African Council of Churches (SACC), which promoted liberation theology. In 1987, he succeeded Dr Beyers Naudé as General Secretary of the SACC.  He has also served as a Moderator of the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) and the AACC Advisory Committee on Peace and Security. Reverend Chikane served as a Director General of the Presidency under President Thabo Mbeki.

Reverend Frank Chikane serves as one of the founding members of Kagiso Trust and is currently the Chairperson of Kagiso Trust.

Rev. Chikane is the former Commissioner of the first Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) which was responsible for the first democratic elections in 1994; a former Director-General in the Office of the Deputy President and later the Presidency and Secretary of Cabinet. He is the Chairperson of the Kagiso Capital (KC) board and the board of City Power Johannesburg. He is currently a Senior Vice-President of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), a Member of the Board of Sci-Bono Discovery Centre and is part of the Kagiso Shanduka Trust (KST) Advisory Committee. Rev. Chikane is also a former Board Member of Thebe Investments and the Development Bank of Southern Africa.