Frank Chikane (born 3 January 1951 in Bushbuckridge, Transvaal) is a South African civil servant, writer and cleric.

After finishing primary school, Chikane attended the University of the North to study sciences in hopes of becoming a physician.

In early 1977, while working in the AFM as a layman, he was detained for a month under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 but was eventually released after a judge dismissed his case.

On 20 August 1983 the United Democratic Front was launched in the community hall in Rocklands, near Cape Town.

In late 1989, agents of the apartheid government attempted to assassinate Chikane by lacing his underwear with Paraoxon.

Two of the suspects were former Police Minister Adriaan Vlok and his then-police chief Johan van der Merwe.