The outgoing chairwoman of the African Union Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma says Africa needs more female heads of state, News 24 reported.
Dlamini-Zuma is considered a front runner in the race for the next South African president. Elections are scheduled for 2019. Her ex-husband, Jacob Zuma, is serving his second and last presidential term.
Promoting women’s rights was the highlight of Dlamini-Zuma’s legacy during her four-and-a-half years as chairwoman of the African Union Commission, according to Liesl Louw-Vaudran, a consultant for the Institute for Security Studies, in a Daily Maverick report.
The African Union voted last week for Moussa Faki Mahamat, a former vice president of Chad, as the next commission chairmanto replace Dlamini-Zuma.
Dlamini-Zuma talked about some of her achievements as chairwoman of the African Union at a praise and worship session in South Africa’s Carletonville — one of her first public appearances post-AU. The theme was women in leadership.
It’s not a democracy if the majority are not participants in the democratic process, she told attendees, including comrades in the ANC Women’s League. “If you empower women, you empower the entire family, you empower the entire community.”
Dlamini-Zuma is also thought to be a likely candidate to replace the president when he steps down as president of the ruling African National Congress party, according to News24. Jacob is expected to step down at the ANC’s 54th national elective conference in December.
Other candidates for the top ANC job include Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who said in December that he was available to serve if nominated for the post.
ANC delegates will vote on who replaces Jacob as party leader, Financial Times reported.
Dlamini-Zuma’s job at the A.U. was to show that the A.U. really matters — not an easy job. For most Africans, it’s “a distant organisation that holds meetings and drafts documents in Addis Ababa, but with little or no effect on the ground,” Daily Maverick reported.
She promised in 2012, when she was elected, to promote a “people-centered” A.U. that would make a difference to ordinary Africans.
Her critics say she seldom gave interviews to the news media, and was almost absent from crises and “several burning issues, such as ensuring free and fair elections and mediating in peace talks.”
She was also criticized for failing to run for a second term and for spending too little time at A.U. headquarters in Addis Ababa.
Dlamini-Zuma focuses on her efforts to make the A.U. self-financed, her work for continental integration with the launch of an e-passport for Africans and for kick-starting important reforms. She says she increased the visibility and reputation of the A.U. as a continental and global player, Daily Maverick reported:
Where Dlamini-Zuma has really made a difference and did show some impact, however, was her commitment to promoting women’s rights in Africa. Even though some would argue that this is a “soft issue” and perhaps not the core mandate of the A.U., it is a worthy and urgent cause given the dire situation faced by many women in Africa.
For two years in a row, the A.U. theme at bi-annual summits focused on women. This didn’t please everyone. “We will definitely not have another woman chairperson at the A.U. – she clashed with too many people,” a North African diplomat in South Africa recently quipped during a discussion about the succession race for the A.U.’s top job.
The most visible of Dlamini-Zuma’s initiatives has been the drive to include more women in political participation in Africa, to try and highlight the plight of women in war situations by appointing a special envoy for women, peace and security, and the campaign to stem child marriage. The latter might be the one campaign that succeeds in making a dramatic difference to the lives of millions of girls, even in the short term.
“We must be there in the ruling of the country,” Dlamini-Zuma said.
Out of nine female heads of state and government that Africa has had, only two were elected, according to CNBC Africa. In 2006, Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf contested the presidential election and won. In 2015, Mauritius had its first elected female president, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, who was elected by parliamentary vote.
The remaining seven assumed their positions in acting capacities. Malawi’s first female President Joyce Banda took office in 2012 after the elected President Bingu wa Mutharika died in office.
Dlamini-Zuma divorced Jacob in 1998 after 26 years of marriage, but they couldn’t avoid each other even if they wanted to, Grazia Daily South Africa reported.
Zuma relatives said Dlamini-Zuma and her children have a house inside Jacob’s Nkandla compound, Times Live reported. She has been a regular visitor to Nkandla over the past two years:
“She visits,” a relative said. “In Zulu culture there’s no divorce. Nothing happens here without her knowing. Even when we have functions she comes and she has a house. Here we still live by traditions. We still practise polygamy.”
In 2007, Jacob blocked Dlamini-Zuma from being elected deputy president, choosing Kgalema Motlanthe instead.
Dlamini-Zuma left her post as foreign affairs minister in Jacob’s cabinet in 2012 after her election to head the A.U. Commission.
Jacob said in a recent SABC interview that it is not automatic ANC policy for a deputy president to become president, Times Live reported.
