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.
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.
Mashamba was born on 25 September 1950[1] in Mulamula, a small village in Malamulele in what was then the Northern Transvaal (now Limpopo province).
[2] She matriculated in 1975 and the following year became Assistant Librarian at the University of the North,[1] where her husband, George, was a philosophy lecturer[3][4] and Master's student.
[5] 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.
[3] Her husband later recalled that the state had presented evidence that, without his knowledge, Mashamba had occasionally driven ANC recruits into Swaziland; he said that when he asked her about it during the trial, she simply replied, "don't you know the [secrecy] rules of our organisation?".
[4] While in prison, Mashamba studied through the University of South Africa (Unisa), obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1982.
[1] Having continued her underground political work, she was rearrested during the state of emergency of 1986, a year before her husband was released from prison.
[1] She held the seat as an ANC representative until 1997, when she was appointed chief executive officer of the Northern Training Trust.
[1] In July 2013, Stan Mathabatha took office as premier and reappointed Mashamba to the Executive Council as MEC for Safety, Security and Liaison.