Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is a 75-year-old ANC veteran who this year announced she was resigning from active politics and rejected nominations to serve in the National Assembly and cabinet.
She remains a member of the ANC national executive committee after having been elected to it at the 2022 ANC national conference.
Dlamini-Zuma is a qualified medical doctor and has held several highly influential and powerful positions during her political career.
She became the first minister of health under the new democratic government in 1994, having been appointed by the late former president Nelson Mandela. She was moved to foreign affairs in 1999 — a position she held for a decade before she was appointed minister of home affairs in 2009.
She became the third chair of the AU Commission between 2012 and 2017, before returning home to go head to head with President Cyril Ramaphosa at the 54th ANC national conference at Nasrec.
After her defeat, Ramaphosa made her minister in the presidency in 2018, before shifting her after only a year to the international relations ministry in 2019.
She was minister of women, youth & persons with disabilities between 2023 and 2024, before the elections that produced the government of national unity.
Dlamini-Zuma has been a vocal critic of the incumbent president, and is famous for rebelling against her party’s directive to vote against the adoption of a panel report that found there was a case for Ramaphosa’s impeachment over the Phala Phala scandal.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.