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Zuma’s ex-wife touted as possible S. African president

– ‘A real possibility’? –

Mavuso Msimang, a former senior official under Dlamini-Zuma when she was minister for home affairs, described her as “an extremely intelligent person”.

“It’s a real possibility that she would become president,” Msimang told AFP.

He said she should be “considered on the merit of her experience in the ANC” over years of service.

“I don’t think she would continue the legacy of her former husband,” said Msimang, who added that he was in favour of a female president.

A medical doctor by training, Dlamini-Zuma, like her polygamist ex-husband, hails from the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal.

The couple met in exile in Swaziland, during the depths of the apartheid era. In 1972, Dlamini-Zuma became Zuma’s second wife and the couple went on to have four children.

They divorced in 1998 but still enjoy good relations, often shaking hands and hugging in public at ANC events or government conferences.

Dlamini-Zuma boasts anti-apartheid struggle credentials as an underground member of the ANC when it was still banned. She went on to become democratic South Africa’s first health minister between 1994-1999, appointed by Nelson Mandela.

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Mandela successor, Thabo Mbeki, put her in charge of foreign affairs, where she worked to implement his much-derided “quiet diplomacy” with neighbouring Zimbabwe as it sank into a deep crisis under President Robert Mugabe.

In Zuma’s administration, she served as home minister, where she was credited with limited reforms to a department mired in bureaucracy and corruption before she took the African Union Commission posting in 2012.

The soft-spoken Dlamini-Zuma is a loyal ANC member and is seen as relatively scandal-free after being out of domestic politics during the turmoil of recent years.

But she appears to lack the easy charm and common touch that her former husband has used so effectively to shore up support, and she still must overcome widespread prejudice over her gender.

The ANC in its 104 years of existence has never had a female leader.

In any leadership bid, her main rival will be Zuma’s deputy Cyril Ramaphosa, a business tycoon and former trade unionist who is the second-in-command in the ANC.

Zuma’s term as ANC leader is set to end in 2017. Under the constitution he must stand down as state president after serving a maximum two terms that end in 2019.

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