Ms Mashego-Dlamini was appointed as the Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation on 30 May 2019. Prior to this, she served as the Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform (2014 to 2019); the Mpumalanga MEC for Health, Welfare and Gender Affairs (1994); the MEC for Agriculture, Conservation and Environment (1999); and the MEC for Public Works (2004 to 2007). She was also the Mpumalanga MEC for Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Administration (2010 to 2013) and then the MEC for Health and Social Development until her move to national government in 2014.

After matriculating at the Mshadza High School in Mpumalanga, she worked as a temporary teacher at Mganduzweni High School (1980 to 1981). Passionate about education and self-advancement, she enrolled for a Financial Secretariat Diploma in Johannesburg while residing in Tembisa on the East Rand.

She changed professions when she did a Secondary Teachers’ Diploma at the Elijah Mango College of Education – a college known for its political activity. She further pursued a BA degree after which she read for a B.Ed degree in Education Management and went on to attain a Diploma in Public Management from the University of South Africa. She is currently studying towards a Master’s degree in Public Management. She holds certificates in Environmental Management, Fidelity Fund, Basic Computer, Typing and Music.

Ms Mashego-Dlamini played an instrumental role in setting up a detainee parent’s 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 South Africa, which spearheaded the formation of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union.

In 1994, her political immersion in bread-and-butter issues of the oppressed saw her elevated to becoming MEC for Health, Welfare and Gender Affairs in Mpumalanga. She is currently studying towards a master’s degree in Public Management.

While participating in the Federation of South African Women and serving as Treasurer for the Eastern Transvaal Women’s Union, she was deployed by the African National Congress’ (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 Treasurer of the ANC Women’s League for 11 years. From 1999 to 2002, she was a member of the ANC National Executive Committee.

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