Wilmot Godfrey James (born 5 July 1953) is a South African academic who served as the country's opposition spokesperson of health and Member of Parliament for the opposition Democratic Alliance,. His constituencies were Mitchells Plain and Rondebosch. He was elected the party's Federal Chairperson between 2010 and 2015. Dr. James contested for the post of party leader in 2016, but lost the election to Mmusi Maimane. James served as director of Sanlam, Media24 and the Africa Genome Education Institute, and was chairperson of the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra and the Immigration Advisory Board of South Africa. He is also a former Trustee of the Ford Foundation of New York. He currently is a Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy and teaches a cours