Nkosazana Dlamini Zumah returns to the political spotlight in South Africa

Nkosazana Dlamini Zumah,ex-wife of South African President Jacob Zumah is returning to the political spotlight of South Africa, as she prepares to the lead the African National Congress (ANC) in December.

At 68, Dlamini Zuma , who returned to the benches of Parliament on Thursday, is not one of the tenors of the ANC.

But the support of the head of state makes him one of the favorites of the race for the presidency of the party. And then to take that of the country in the elections of 2019.

“She is courageous”, “we can trust her,” Zuma publicly launched in May.

This support was soon perceived as a maneuver. By installing him to his succession, insure his enemies, the president wants to guarantee his immunity in the judicial files where he is accused.

He is not “convinced of his leadership qualities,” said Ranjeni Munusamy, political commentator, he wants above all to “ensure his own survival”.

A sort of “remarriage” of interests, therefore, between two personalities with very different styles.

In public, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma is as serious and discreet as her ex-husband is jovial and demonstrative. She presents herself as a feminist, Jacob Zuma is polygamous. It is perceived as relatively honest, when the current head of state is entangled in a long series of scandals.

Since leaving the AU in early 2017, she has been conducting a regular field campaign with ANC militants.

Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has held three important ministerial portfolios from 1994 to 2012: Health, Foreign and Domestic Affairs.

It can boast of having played a key role in the peace talks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

But she failed in the crisis in Zimbabwe, kept silent on South African president Thabo Mbeki’s mistakes in the fight against AIDS, and was caught up in the first big corruption scandal of democratic South Africa.

In her candidacy for the presidential election, she highlights her past years as head of the AU commission (2012-2017).