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.