Wilmot Godfrey James (born 5 July 1953) is a South African academic who served as the country's opposition spokesperson of health.

He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the United States, and attained his MS from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1978, and a PhD from the same institution in 1982.

In early 1994 he was seconded to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to run the information division for the Western Cape during the nation's first democratic election.

Dr. James advised the Office of President Nelson Mandela's Director-General Jakes Gerwel on the renaming of his (Mandela's) Cape residence – from Westbrooke to Genadendal – and on constitutional rights education for colored (mixed descent) communities (see Now That We Are Free, Boulder, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1996) torn between accepting majority rule and worrying about minority interests.

With the late Kader Asmal and David Chidester, he served as a contributing author and co-editor of Nelson Mandela in His Own Words (Boston and London, Little Brown and Co., 2003, republished in 2018).

His most recent book is Vital Signs: Health Security in South Africa (Brenthurst Foundation, Johannesburg, 2020).

He is an Honorary Professor of Public Health at the [University of the Witwatersrand] today[4] In 2001, James was appointed Associate Editor at the Cape Argus newspaper, but left the paper later that year.