Candith Mashego-Dlamini

Ms Mashego-Dlamini is the Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform since 26 May 2014.Ms Mashego-Dlamini holds a Diploma in Public Management from the University of South Africa. She also has certificates in Environmental Management, Fidelity Fund, Basic Computer, Typing and Music. She is currently studying towards a Master’s degree in Public Management.

Mashego-Dlamini played an instrumental role in setting up a Detainees Parents Support Committee in the 1980s to thwart the impact of the arrests of many anti-apartheid activists. She participated in many structures including the National Education Union of SA, which spearheaded the formation of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU).

While participating in the Federation of South African Women and serving as a treasurer for the Eastern Transvaal Women’s Union, she was deployed by the ANC Youth League to the ANC Women’s League. After resuscitating structures of the ANC in the early 1990s, she ascended to the ANC Provincial Executive Committee and became a treasurer of the ANC Women’s League for 11 years. In 1999-2002 she was a member of the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC).

Some of Ms Mashego-Dlamini’s significant contributions include serving as a convener of both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the African Peer Review Mechanism in Mpumalanga. She also served as the Deputy Secretary of the Common Wealth Women Parliamentary Association, Mpumalanga branch, an association of which she continues to be an active participant since 2009.

Prior to her appointment as one of the Deputy Ministers of Rural Development and Land Reform, Ms Mashego-Dlamini served as MEC for Health, Welfare and Gender Affairs in 1994. She was appointed MEC for Agriculture, Conservation and Environment in 1999 until she was tasked with leading the Department of Public Works from 2004 to 2007 in Mpumalanga. She was also the Mpumalanga MEC for Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Administration from late 2010 to early February 2013. She was then appointed as the Mpumalanga MEC for Health and Social Development from 2013.