45 Facts About Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma

Since 1994, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has served in the cabinet of every post-apartheid South African president.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was Minister of Health under President Nelson Mandela, and Minister of Foreign Affairs for ten years under Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was absent from the South African government between October 2012 and January 2017, when she served as the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, making her the first woman to lead either that organisation or its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has been a member of the ANC's National Executive Committee since the early 1990s, and has twice campaigned unsuccessfully for leadership positions in the party: in 2007, at the ANC's 52nd National Conference, Motlanthe defeated her to win the deputy presidency; while at the 54th National Conference in 2017, she narrowly lost the ANC presidency to Ramaphosa, the incumbent.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma Clarice Dlamini was born on 27 January 1949 to a Zulu family in Natal.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma's father, Willibrod Gweva, was a teacher, whose brother Stephen Dlamini was an activist in the African National Congress ; her mother Rose was a homemaker.

The eldest of eight children, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma completed high school in Amanzimtoti at Adams College, a mission school attended by many ANC stalwarts.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma therefore finished her medical studies in the United Kingdom, graduating with an MBChB from the University of Bristol in 1978.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was chairperson of the ANC Youth Section in Britain between 1977 and 1978, and in that capacity often travelled elsewhere in Europe.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma then spent five years in Swaziland, where she worked as a paediatric officer at the Mbabane Government Hospital.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma met her future husband, Umkhonto we Sizwe activist Jacob Zuma, while embedded in the ANC underground in Swaziland.

In 1985, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma returned to the United Kingdom to complete a diploma in tropical child health from Liverpool University's School of Tropical Medicine.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma returned to South Africa when the ANC was unbanned by the National Party government in 1990, signalling the beginning of the country's transition to non-racial democracy.

In 1994, after South Africa's first election under universal suffrage, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was appointed as Minister of Health in the cabinet of President Nelson Mandela, where she continued the work of her predecessor, Rina Venter, in racially desegregating the health system and broadening state anti-tobacco measures.

In 1999, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma introduced the Tobacco Products Amendment Bill, which made it illegal to smoke in public buildings.

However, investigations revealed that Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma had misled Parliament about the source of the project's funding and had ignored proper bidding procedures.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1999 to 2009, under Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was President of the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, and President of the Ministers' Council at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development.

In May 2009, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was appointed Minister of Home Affairs in the cabinet of her ex-husband, newly elected President Zuma.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma held the role until October 2012, and was lauded for turning around the Department of Home Affairs.

However, Home Affairs Director-General Mavuso Msimang, who had arrived at the department before Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, said that Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma's predecessor, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, was primarily responsible for the turnaround.

In January 2012, while still heading the Ministry of Home Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma contested the position of Chairperson of the African Union Commission.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was Chairperson until 30 January 2017, when she was replaced by Chadian Foreign Minister Moussa Faki.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was unpopular and disliked among AU officials for her apparent aloofness and absenteeism.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma 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 in Addis Ababa, reinforcing "perceptions of South Africa as an insular nation".

The Agenda 2063 plan spearheaded by Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was criticised as "quixotic" and unrealistic.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was an advocate for increased gender representation in the AU which further exacerbated her popularity issues.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma denied rumours that she would replace Blade Nzimande as Minister of Higher Education in an imminent cabinet reshuffle, describing her return to Parliament as a standard redeployment arranged by the ANC.

Re-elected following general elections in May 2019, Ramaphosa announced his new cabinet, which saw Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma moved to the head of the Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was expected to try to repeat her successes at Home Affairs in order to turn around another famously dysfunctional portfolio.

However, some levity was introduced into the situation in May 2020, when South African DJ Max Hurrell released a house song which sampled remarks that Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma had made during a press briefing about the tobacco ban.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma first joined the National Executive Committee of the ANC in the period between 1991 and 1994, when she was co-opted onto the committee to fill a casual vacancy.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma remained on the NEC thereafter: she was democratically elected for the first time at the ANC's 49th National Conference in 1994, and was re-elected at subsequent conferences in 1997 and in 2002.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma ultimately stood as deputy president on an Mbeki-aligned slate.

Ahead of the 54th National Conference of the ANC in December 2017, and having recently returned from her AU position in Addis Ababa, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma ran for the ANC presidency.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was endorsed by the ANC Women's League in January 2017, and later by the ANC Youth League and the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans' Association.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was viewed as media-shy, and only conducted one interview, with ANN7, during her campaign.

At the conference, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma narrowly lost in a vote against Cyril Ramaphosa, winning 2,261 votes against his 2,440.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was nominated for the position by her own ANC branch in eThekwini, Kwa-Zulu Natal, and was again endorsed by former President Zuma.

On 7 April 2017, amid national public demonstrations against Zuma's presidency, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma caused controversy by apparently disparaging the protests as "rubbish".

The allegations were revived in 2020, as commentators questioned whether Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was pursuing the government's tobacco ban because of her alleged connections to tobacco smugglers, who would benefit from the ban.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma maintained that the ban was based on health concerns only.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was married to former President Jacob Zuma between 1982 and 1998.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma's younger sister, Hlobisile, is an ANC member and serves as Member of the Kwa-Zulu Natal Legislature.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma received the Order of Luthuli in gold in 2013.