‘Enigmatic’ ex-wife of S.Africa’s Zuma vies for power

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SAFRICA-POLITICS-DLAMINIZUMA,PROFILE

‘Enigmatic’ ex-wife of S.Africa’s Zuma vies for power

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 16, 2017 (BSS/AFP) – Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a front-
runner in the race for South Africa’s ruling party leadership, faces
difficulty distancing herself from her tarnished ex-husband President Jacob
Zuma.

Dlamini-Zuma is an African National Congress (ANC) veteran and an
experienced technocrat who has served as a minister under every leader since
the end of white minority rule in 1994.

She became one of the most experienced ministers of the democratic post-
apartheid era, holding the home affairs, health and foreign affairs
portfolios.

She was also chair of the African Union Commission until earlier this
year, but running for the ANC top job is her biggest challenge yet, with
victory putting her in line to become the next president of the country.

Her former husband, with whom she has four children, is fighting multiple
corruption scandals and is blamed for many of the country’s economic and
political problems.

As a result Dlamini-Zuma, 68, has been forced to defend herself against
critics who say her elevation would mean the continuation of Zuma’s rule —
and that she could shield him from possible criminal prosecution.

Speaking to AFP recently, she angrily dismissed “offensive” criticism that
she was her ex-husband’s hand-picked successor.

Neither the ANC nor South Africa have yet had a woman leader and Dlamini-
Zuma winning the party leadership at a conference starting on Saturday would
be a ground-breaking moment for the African continent.

– ‘She is an enigma’ –

Zuma has thrown his weight behind her, describing her as “bold” and
“someone you can trust”. But critics are yet to be convinced.

“She is an enigma… a very difficult person to judge, simply because she
has always operated under someone else’s shadow,” said political analyst
Susan Booysen.

“Her support is largely based on her husband’s constituency,” she said.

Born January 27, 1949, in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, Dlamini-
Zuma took up politics in high school.

In the 1970s she went into exile, studying in Britain at the universities
of Bristol and Liverpool, while helping organise the overseas anti-apartheid
movement.

She met Zuma while working as a paediatrician at a Swaziland hospital and
became the polygamist future president’s third wife in 1982.

When the ban on the African National Congress was lifted in 1990, she
returned home.

After the end of apartheid in 1994, then president Nelson Mandela
appointed her health minister.

She took the helm at a time when millions of people were dying from AIDS.

She did not hold the health brief under Mandela’s successor, Thabo Mbeki,
who is accused of allowing the disease to advance through inaction and
superstition.

In 1998, Dlamini-Zuma was criticised for suspending pilot trials on the
use of anti-retrovirals to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, claiming
they were “unaffordable”.

But she championed HIV awareness schemes — including “Sarafina II”, a
stage play that embroiled her in a corruption scandal over its cost.

– ‘Her own person’? –

South Africa’s graft watchdog ruled that she misled parliament over the
project’s funding in a scandal that blemished her otherwise impressive record
of public service.

Dlamini-Zuma, who divorced President Zuma in 1998, has received backing in
her ANC leadership bid from several powerful corners of the party including
its women’s and youth wings.

But, according to Carin du Plessis, author of “Woman in the Wings:
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and the Race for the Presidency”, some foreign
diplomats report “very negative” encounters.

“If she does not like you, she is not afraid to show you,” Du Plessis told
AFP. “I think she might be her own person as far as it comes to governance.”

But Dlamini-Zuma has been muted on key issues like corruption, carefully
treading the party line and delivering speeches that promise to push ahead
with Zuma’s policy of “radical economic transformation” supposed to help poor
black South Africans.

Known for her unsmiling demeanour and stern personality, she has
campaigned hard for the ANC job, speaking at rallies across the country.

“She takes her work very seriously,” said Prince Mashele, an analyst at
the Centre for Politics and Research, who worked with Dlamini-Zuma’s ministry
when she held the foreign affairs portfolio.

“She has the rare quality of putting up very good administrators, but I
thought she could do better if she was a little more affable.”

BSS/AFP/MRI/0825 hrs