Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma | |||||||||||||||
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.jpg) Dlamini-Zuma in 2014 | |||||||||||||||
| Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities | |||||||||||||||
| In office 6 March 2023 – 19 June 2024 | |||||||||||||||
| President | Cyril Ramaphosa | ||||||||||||||
| Deputy | Sisisi Tolashe | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Maite Nkoana-Mashabane | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Sindisiwe Chikunga | ||||||||||||||
| Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs | |||||||||||||||
| In office 30 May 2019 – 6 March 2023 | |||||||||||||||
| President | Cyril Ramaphosa | ||||||||||||||
| Deputy | Parks Tau (until 2020) Obed Bapela (2019–2023) Thembi Nkadimeng (2021–2023) | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Zweli Mkhize | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Thembi Nkadimeng | ||||||||||||||
| Minister in the Presidency | |||||||||||||||
| In office 28 February 2018 – 29 May 2019 | |||||||||||||||
| President | Cyril Ramaphosa | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Jeff Radebe | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Jackson Mthembu | ||||||||||||||
| 3rd Chairperson of the African Union Commission | |||||||||||||||
| In office 15 October 2012 – 30 January 2017 | |||||||||||||||
| Deputy | Erastus Mwencha | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Jean Ping | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Moussa Faki | ||||||||||||||
| Minister of Home Affairs | |||||||||||||||
| In office 10 May 2009 – 3 October 2012 | |||||||||||||||
| President | Jacob Zuma | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Naledi Pandor | ||||||||||||||
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |||||||||||||||
| In office 14 June 1999 – 10 May 2009 | |||||||||||||||
| President | Thabo Mbeki Kgalema Motlanthe | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Alfred Nzo | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Maite Nkoana-Mashabane(International Relations and Cooperation) | ||||||||||||||
| 21stMinister of Health | |||||||||||||||
| In office 10 May 1994 – 14 June 1999 | |||||||||||||||
| President | Nelson Mandela | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Rina Venter | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Manto Tshabalala-Msimang | ||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||
| Born | Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini (1949-01-27)27 January 1949 (age 76) | ||||||||||||||
| Political party | African National Congress | ||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||
| Relations | Hlobisile Dlamini (sister) | ||||||||||||||
| Children | 4, includingGugulethu andThuthukile | ||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Zululand University of Natal University of Bristol University of Liverpool | ||||||||||||||
| Occupation |
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Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini-Zuma (née Dlamini; born 27 January 1949), sometimes referred to by herinitialsNDZ, is aSouth Africanpolitician,medical doctor and former anti-apartheidactivist. A longstanding member of theAfrican National Congress (ANC), she currently serves as aChancellor of theUniversity of Limpopo.
Dlamini-Zuma was born and educated in the formerNatal province, where, as a student, she became involved in theBlack Consciousness Movement through theSouth African Students' Organisation. Between 1976 and 1990, she lived inexile outside South Africa, primarily in the United Kingdom and Swaziland, where she practiced medicine and engaged in ANC activism. Since 1994, Dlamini-Zuma has served in the cabinet of every post-apartheid South African president. She wasMinister of Health under PresidentNelson Mandela, andMinister of Foreign Affairs for ten years under PresidentsThabo Mbeki andKgalema Motlanthe. During the first term of PresidentJacob Zuma, she wasMinister of Home Affairs, in which portfolio she was credited with turning around a dysfunctionaldepartment. During PresidentCyril Ramaphosa's second term, she was briefly alsoMinister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities.
Under PresidentCyril Ramaphosa, she served asMinister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, with responsibility for theNational Planning Commission, before becomingMinister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, in which capacity she had a prominent and controversial role in regulating South Africa'slockdown during theCOVID-19 pandemic. She was absent from the South African government between October 2012 and January 2017, when she served as the Chairperson of theAfrican Union Commission, making her the first woman to lead either that organisation or its predecessor, theOrganisation of African Unity.[1] Her tenure in that position was also controversial.
She has been a member of the ANC'sNational Executive Committee since the early 1990s, and has twice campaigned unsuccessfully for leadership positions in the party: in 2007, at the ANC's52nd National Conference, Motlanthe defeated her to win the deputy presidency; while at the54th National Conference in 2017, she narrowly lost the ANC presidency to Ramaphosa, the incumbent.
Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini was born on 27 January 1949 to aZulu[2] family inNatal. Her father, Willibrod Gweva, was a teacher, whose brother Stephen Dlamini was an activist in theAfrican National Congress (ANC);[3] her mother Rose was ahomemaker.[4] The eldest of eight children, Dlamini-Zuma completed high school inAmanzimtoti atAdams College, amission school attended by many ANC stalwarts. Shematriculated in 1967.[5] Wanting to become a lawyer but acquiescing to her father's eagerness that she become a doctor, she earned aBSc degree inzoology andbotany from theUniversity of Zululand in 1971,[5] and then went to theUniversity of Natal to studymedicine.[4] While there, she became an active member ofSouth African Students' Organisation, aBlack Consciousness grouping, and was elected as its deputy president in 1976.[5]
With her political activity attractingpolice attention, she went intoexile later in 1976. She therefore finished her medical studies in the United Kingdom, graduating with anMBChB from theUniversity of Bristol in 1978.[5] She was chairperson of the ANC Youth Section in Britain between 1977 and 1978,[3] and in that capacity often travelled elsewhere in Europe.[4] After she graduated, Dlamini-Zuma worked in England for two years, atBristol'sFrenchay Hospital andBerkshire'sCanadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital, while serving on the British Regional Political Committee of the ANC.[5] She then spent five years in Swaziland, where she worked as a paediatric officer at theMbabane Government Hospital.[3] She met her future husband,Umkhonto we Sizwe activistJacob Zuma, while embedded in the ANC underground in Swaziland.[3]
In 1985, Dlamini-Zuma returned to the United Kingdom to complete a diploma in tropical child health fromLiverpool University'sSchool of Tropical Medicine.[5] In subsequent years, she continued her work in paediatrics; helped found and directed the Health Refugee Trust, a British non-governmental organisation; and then returned briefly to Africa in 1989, to work for the ANC Health Department inLusaka, Zambia.[5] She returned to South Africa when the ANC was unbanned by theNational Party government in 1990, signalling the beginning of the country'stransition to non-racial democracy. During theConvention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) negotiations in 1992, she was part of the Gender Advisory Committee. In the transition period, she also served on the Executive Committee and Health Committee of the ANC's Southern Natal branch, and as a research scientist at South Africa's Medical Research Council inDurban.[5]
In 1994, after South Africa'sfirst election under universal suffrage, Dlamini-Zuma was appointed asMinister of Health in the cabinet ofPresidentNelson Mandela, where she continued the work of her predecessor,Rina Venter, in racially desegregatingthe health system and broadening stateanti-tobacco measures.[6] In 1999, Dlamini-Zuma introduced theTobacco Products Amendment Bill, which made itillegal to smoke in public buildings.[7] Her term also coincided with the beginning of theHIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa. Despite Dlamini-Zuma's history ofHIV/AIDS activism,[8] including a stint on the National Aids Coordinating Committee in 1992 and a period as Deputy Chairperson of theUnited Nations AIDS programme (UNAIDS) in 1995,[5] she and her Ministry were criticised for publicly supportingVirodene, a "quack remedy" for HIV/AIDS.[9][10][11]
In August 1995, theDepartment of Health awarded a R14.27m contract toMbongeni Ngema, a "good friend" of Dlamini-Zuma's, to produce a sequel toSarafina!, a popular South Africanmusical.[12][13]Sarafina II was designed as an HIV/AIDS public awareness initiative. However, investigations revealed that Dlamini-Zuma had misledParliament about the source of the project's funding (which the Department had falsely said was sponsored by theEuropean Union) and had ignored proper bidding procedures.[12][14] The play was shelved in 1996, after thePublic Protector published a report criticising the project's poor financial controls and procedural irregularities.[15][16]
Dlamini-Zuma served asMinister of Foreign Affairs from 1999 to 2009, under PresidentsThabo Mbeki andKgalema Motlanthe.[17] Opposition leaderTony Leon said that her appointment was "like sending the bull into the china shop".[4] At the beginning of her term, in 1999, she was involved inshuttle diplomacy in theSecond Congo War, mediating among factions of theRally for Congolese Democracy and between Uganda and Rwanda.[18][19] According toAfrica Confidential, she was also particularly involved in pursuing Mbeki's goal of reforming theUnited Nations to increase the relative power ofGlobal South countries,[20] and more generally she promoted Mbeki'span-Africanist "African Renaissance" vision.[3] She was President of the2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, and President of the Ministers' Council at the2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development.[21][22] Yet during her tenure, she was criticised for her "quiet diplomacy" in response to theland invasions and political crisis under Zimbabwe'sZANU-PF regime.[23][24] Also during this period, in 2005, Mbeki reportedly offered her the post ofDeputy President afterJacob Zuma was fired; she declined.[4][25]
In May 2009, Dlamini-Zuma was appointedMinister of Home Affairs in thecabinet of her ex-husband, newlyelected President Zuma. She held the role until October 2012, and was lauded forturning around theDepartment of Home Affairs.[23][26] During her tenure, the Department – previously viewed as "a hotbed of corruption and incompetence" – received its first unqualifiedaudit in 16 years, as well as an excellence award from theDepartment of Public Service and Administration.[27] TheMail & Guardian attributed the improvement in service delivery to Dlamini-Zuma'stechnocratic efficiency and implementation ofinternal control measures.[27] However, Home Affairs Director-GeneralMavuso Msimang, who had arrived at the department before Dlamini-Zuma, said that Dlamini-Zuma's predecessor,Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, was primarily responsible for the turnaround.[3]
In 2011, Dlamini-Zuma encountered public outcry when theDalai Lama was unable to attendDesmond Tutu's eightieth birthday party because the Department, hesitant tooffend China, failed to issue him avisa.[28] The Department's "deliberate delay" was ruled unlawful the following year by theSupreme Court of Appeal, in a judgement that strongly criticised Dlamini-Zuma.[29]
In January 2012, while still heading the Ministry of Home Affairs, Dlamini-Zuma contested the position ofChairperson of theAfrican Union (AU)Commission. In doing so, she broke an "unwritten rule" that major African powers do not put forward candidates for AU positions.[30][31][32] This angered many AU states, leading to a deadlock in the first election,[31][33] despite the backing for Dlamini-Zuma's presidency provided by the fifteen states comprising theSouthern African Development Community.[23][34] As a consequence of the failure to secure a two-thirds majority of the vote, incumbentJean Ping's term was extended by six months,[35][36] until a second election on 15 July at the nineteenth session of theAU Assembly elected Dlamini-Zuma to the position.[37][38] The vote was largely divided along language lines –Francophone states againstAnglophone states, with the latter bloc supporting Dlamini-Zuma's candidacy.[23][39] Dlamini-Zuma was Chairperson until 30 January 2017, when she was replaced by Chadian Foreign MinisterMoussa Faki.[40]
Dlamini-Zuma was unpopular and disliked among AU officials for her apparent aloofness and absenteeism. She was criticised for filling her advisory office and security detail with South African nationals, and for spending much of her time in South Africa instead of at AU headquarters inAddis Ababa, reinforcing "perceptions of South Africa as an insular nation".[4][33] TheAgenda 2063 plan spearheaded by Dlamini-Zuma was criticised as "quixotic" and unrealistic.[4][41] Her leadership as chairperson was considered a disappointing failure,[11][42][43][44][41] although she was acknowledged for the managerial improvements she made.[33] This included her insistence on professionalism which enhanced the AU's reputation; it was taken more seriously as a result of her interventions.[45] She was also an advocate for increased gender representation in the AU which further exacerbated her popularity issues.[45] Furthermore, "[i]n a room of stuffy old men talking about guns and tanks, she brought in concepts like gender, human rights and food security."[45] She was also credited with the politically courageous drive to suspend Egypt from the AU afterAbdel Fattah el-Sisi's2013 military coup,[4][33] although she did not condemn otherauthoritarian power grabs elsewhere in Africa.[33][46]
In early 2017, Dlamini-Zuma returned full-time to South Africa from Addis Ababa, and launched a campaign – ultimately unsuccessful – to win the presidency of the ANC(seebelow). During her campaign, on 21 September 2017, she was sworn back in as a Member of theNational Assembly, filling acasual vacancy arising fromPule Mabe's resignation.[47] She denied rumours that she would replaceBlade Nzimande asMinister of Higher Education in an imminentcabinet reshuffle, describing her return to Parliament as a standardredeployment arranged by the ANC.[47][48] Earlier that year, there had been similar rumours that Zuma's ANC faction was lobbying for her to replacePravin Gordhan asMinister of Finance.[49]
In February 2018, newlyelected PresidentCyril Ramaphosa appointed Dlamini-ZumaMinister in the Presidency with responsibility for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation.[50][51] In this capacity she was the Chairperson of theNational Planning Commission and oversaw the implementation of South Africa'sNational Development Plan.[52][53]
Re-elected followinggeneral elections in May 2019, Ramaphosa announcedhis new cabinet, which saw Dlamini-Zuma moved to the head of theMinistry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA).[54] Dlamini-Zuma was expected to try to repeat her successes at Home Affairs in order to turn around another famously dysfunctional portfolio.[55] However, observers agreed that, during her first three years in office, she failed to effect such a turnaround, with the financial mismanagement ofmunicipalities remaining a major challenge on theCooperative Governance front.[55][56][57][58] In 2022, Dlamini-Zuma's office prepared a plan to revert theNorth West province to proper provincialadministration after more than three years – since 2018, the province had been under national administration, supervised by COGTA, in terms of an emergency provision in theConstitution for dysfunctional provinces.[59]
Between March 2020 and April 2022, South Africa was officially under a nationalstate of disaster, which allowed theexecutive to bypass Parliament inregulating the country's response to theCOVID-19 pandemic. In terms of the Disaster Management Act, Dlamini-Zuma, as COGTA Minister, was responsible for promulgating those regulations; she therefore, unexpectedly, gained significant power over South African policy, leading many commentators to call her ade factohead of state orprime minister.[58][60] In late April, Dlamini-Zuma announced that a controversial ban on the sale of tobacco would remain in place, contradicting an announcement by President Ramaphosa earlier that week.[61] This apparent U-turn was met with much public comment about Dlamini-Zuma's apparently growing power in the cabinet,[58] and necessitated a public statement from Ramaphosa to clarify that both his announcement and its reversal had been "on behalf of, and mandated by, the collective I lead".[62] COGTA's bans on tobacco and alcohol, and other so-called "hardlockdown" regulations, were fiercely unpopular with parts of the population and were subject to several challenges in the courts.[58]
However, some levity was introduced into the situation in May 2020, when South African DJ Max Hurrell released ahouse song whichsampled remarks that Dlamini-Zuma had made during a press briefing about the tobacco ban.[63] The song, entitled "Zol", featured recordings of Dlamini-Zuma explaining why sharing "zol" – South Africanslang forroll-up cigarettes usually containingcannabis – conduced toCOVID-19 transmission: "When people zol, they put saliva on the paper, and then they share that zol". The song became a social mediameme and the most played song in South Africa onApple Music, and a video version produced bythe Kiffness wentviral online.[64] Dlamini-ZumaTweeted "Who is this Max Hurrell fellow? We just need to talk", and reached out to the DJ to congratulate him "on entertaining the nation during this difficult period".[65]
In a cabinet reshuffle on 6 March 2023, Ramaphosa appointed Dlamini-Zuma as Minister in the Presidency responsible for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities.[66]
Dlamini-Zuma first joined theNational Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC in the period between 1991 and 1994, when she wasco-opted onto the committee to fill a casual vacancy.[67] She remained on the NEC thereafter: she was democratically elected for the first time at the ANC's49th National Conference in 1994,[68] and was re-elected at subsequent conferencesin 1997 andin 2002.[69][70] Ahead of thenext national conference in 2007, some observers viewed her as a possible contender for the ANC's presidency and candidacy in national presidential elections.[71][72] Instead, she was nominated for two other of the so-called Top Six positions in the party: fourprovinces (those aligned to Mbeki) nominated her as deputy president, while the other five (which backed a Zuma presidency) nominated her as national chairperson.[73] She ultimately stood as deputy president on an Mbeki-alignedslate.[8] Like the other members of that slate, she lost the vote, in her case to Motlanthe.[74] However, she was re-elected to the NEC,[75] and at the2012 conference she won the most votes of any NEC candidate.[76]
Ahead of the54th National Conference of the ANC in December 2017, and having recently returned from her AU position inAddis Ababa, Dlamini-Zuma ran for the ANC presidency. As early as 2016, on some accounts, her supporters were "lobbying openly" for Dlamini-Zuma to replace Zuma as ANC president at the conclusion of the latter's term in late 2017.[77] She was endorsed by theANC Women's League in January 2017,[78] and later by theANC Youth League and theUmkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans' Association.[79] Dlamini-Zuma was viewed as media-shy, and only conducted one interview, withANN7, during her campaign.[80]
Her campaign, under the slogan #WeAreReady,[79] centred on land redistribution, reform at theSouth African Reserve Bank, and economic transformation generally, a policy package which aligned her closely with the so-called Radical Economic Transformation (RET) faction, a pro-Zuma grouping.[81][82][83] Indeed, some analysts suspected that Dlamini-Zuma's campaign was a "Trojan horse" for Zuma's interests,[84] aiming to secure his continued influence over the party.[85][86] At the conference, Dlamini-Zuma narrowly lost in a vote againstCyril Ramaphosa, winning 2,261 votes against his 2,440.[87][88] She was re-elected to the NEC.[89]
By September 2022, amid preparations for the55th National Conference, Dlamini-Zuma was understood to be planning to run again for the ANC presidency.[60] She was nominated for the position by her own ANC branch ineThekwini, Kwa-Zulu Natal,[90] and was again endorsed by former President Zuma.[91]
On 7 April 2017, amid nationalpublic demonstrations against Zuma's presidency, Dlamini-Zuma caused controversy by apparently disparaging the protests as "rubbish".[92][93][94][95] Herverified Twitter account posted "[Their privilege] is what they are protecting... hence some of us are not part of this rubbish. They must join us for the march for our land they stole..." and deleted the tweet shortly thereafter. Dlamini-Zuma later said the tweet was "fake".[96][97]
In 2017, journalistJacques Pauw claimed inThe President's Keepers that Dlamini-Zuma's campaign for the ANC presidency was sponsored partly by businessman Adriano Mazzotti, whose company, Carnilinx, was widely suspected of involvement incigarette smuggling and other illicit activities. Mazzotti allegedly financed the campaign'smerchandise.[98] In subsequent weeks, theSunday Times threw into question Mazzotti's rebuttal – that he had only met Dlamini-Zuma once, briefly – by publishingInstagram photographs of the pair together on two separate occasions.[99] Both Mazzotti and, through her spokesman, Dlamini-Zuma denied that they had any "direct or substantive relationship".[99] Johann van Loggerenberg claimed in his 2019 book,Tobacco Wars, that Mazzotti had admitted to assisting the campaign in acquiring merchandise – but through personal connections rather than by paying for the merchandise directly.[100]
The allegations were revived in 2020, as commentators questioned whether Dlamini-Zuma was pursuing the government's tobacco ban(seeabove) because of her alleged connections to tobacco smugglers, who would benefit from the ban.[101] Such speculation drew not only on the Mazzotti allegations, but also on the ties of Edward Zuma, Dlamini-Zuma's formerstepson, to Amalgamated Tobacco Manufacturers, a cheap cigarette manufacturer also suspected of illicit activity.[98][102] Dlamini-Zuma maintained that the ban was based on health concerns only.[100]
Dlamini-Zuma was married to former PresidentJacob Zuma between 1982 and 1998.[23] They had four daughters together: Msholozi (born 1982);Gugulethu Zuma-Ncube (born 1984), who married the son of Zimbabwean politicianWelshman Ncube; Nokuthula Nomaqhawe (born 1987); andThuthukile (born 1989), who was controversially appointed Chief of Staff in theDepartment of Telecommunications and Postal Services in 2014.[103] Dlamini-Zuma divorced Zuma in June 1998 overirreconcilable differences.[8][104]
Dlamini-Zuma's younger sister,Hlobisile, is also an ANC member and serves as Member of theKwa-Zulu Natal Legislature.[105]
Dlamini-Zuma received theOrder of Luthuli in gold in 2013.[106] The same year, she was listed as one ofNew African magazine's top 100 most influential Africans,[107] and in 2015 she was featured as one of the BBC's100 Women.[108] In 2019, she was appointed theChancellor of theUniversity of Limpopo,[109] a non-residential and largely ceremonial position. In 2016, she was honored with the naming of theDr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma Local Municipality, a merger of theIngwe andKwa Sani local municipalities, inKwaZulu-Natal.
'I am not Anglophone, I'm Zulu,' she said.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister of Health 1994–1999 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Foreign Affairs 1999–2009 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Home Affairs 2009–2012 | Succeeded by |
| Positions in intergovernmental organisations | ||
| Preceded by | Chair of the African Union Commission 2012–2017 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
