Joyce Mashamba

Happy Joyce Mashamba (25 September 1950 – 20 June 2018) was a South African politician and veteran of the African National Congress (ANC). At the time of her death, she was Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Agriculture and Rural Development in the provincial government of Limpopo. She was also a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party and a former member of the ANC National Executive Committee and the ANC Women's League National Executive Committee.

During apartheid, Mashamba was an anti-apartheid activist with her husband, George; she was imprisoned from 1977 to 1982 for running an underground ANC cell in Turfloop, Transvaal. In 1994 she was elected to the National Assembly and in 1999 she was elected to the Limpopo Provincial Legislature, where she spent the rest of her career. She served as MEC in six different portfolios under each of the first five Premiers of Limpopo and became the province's longest-serving MEC. She was also briefly Deputy Speaker of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature from 2012 to 2013.

Early life and activism Mashamba was born on 25 September 1950 in Mulamula, a small village in Malamulele in what was then the Northern Transvaal (now Limpopo province). She matriculated in 1975 and the following year became Assistant Librarian at the University of the North, and Master's student. The university campus was at Mankweng, Transvaal (Turfloop), and during that period it was a central arena for student anti-apartheid politics, particularly in the Black Consciousness Movement. Mashamba was a founding member of the Mankweng Civic Association and served on its first executive committee. Mashamba was also implicated in reconnaissance for the ANC: prosecutors alleged that she had gathered strategic information for the ANC about police stations and military camps in the Transvaal.

During this period, she departed from the Executive Council only for one brief period: in a March 2012 reshuffle, Premier Cassel Mathale fired Mashamba as MEC for Sports, Arts and Culture, replacing her with Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, and Mashamba was made Deputy Speaker of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature. In 2018, SABC News said that Mashamba was Limpopo's longest-serving MEC.

Mashamba also remained active in party-political offices. She was elected as a member of the National Executive Committee of the ANC Women's League in 1999 and was re-elected to her seat in 2003 and 2008. Towards the end of her second term, in 2007, she was elected to the National Executive Committee of the ANC, ranked 63rd of the 80 candidates elected; she was re-elected to another five-year term in 2012, ranked 44th. Finally, although membership of the South African Communist Party (SACP) is typically secret, the SACP said in 2018 that Mashamba was a "long-standing" member; she was elected to the SACP Central Committee in 2007 and remained a member when she died, having been re-elected in 2012 and 2017.

Death Mashamba died on 20 June 2018 after a long illness. She was buried in her home village, Mulamula.

She was Limpopo MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development at the time of her death and was replaced by Basikopo Makamu in July 2018.

Personal life Mashamba was married to George Mashamba, who was arrested with her in 1976 and who also served in the Limpopo Provincial Legislature and on the SACP Central Committee. They married in September 1969 and at the time of her death had three sons, one daughter, and seven grandchildren.