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Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma

Stephen Mpofu
Surprise, surprise that an African woman reportedly is raring to wade into the fray of political Goliaths eyeing the summit of power.

No, not at all surprising for the African Union’s Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma about whom speculation reportedly is rife in her native South Africa that she could be the next president after Jacob Zuma, her former husband.

Outgoing as chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr Dlamini Zuma has after all steered the ship of the AU since 2012 with such an unflinching intrepidity and a resolute conviction that her gender means nothing when it comes to serving her African people.

Which no doubt puts her in good stead to lead her motherland as its head of state.

Moreover, the rejection by the recent AU Heads of State Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, of three candidates vying for her post automatically raises her political profile even higher.

[Two of the candidates from Uganda and Equatorial Guinea were turned down reportedly because they represented countries with tendencies that the AU leaders apparently feared would dilute the thrust in democratic processes on the African continent, while the third candidate, from Botswana, apparently was deemed to lack the mettle for the important post of head of the AU Commission – and the continental body will again try in January next year to find a replacement for Dr Nkosazana Zuma who has said she was standing down from her post to take part in local, South African, politics].

But if she has any presidential ambition she has apparently kept that interest close to her chest, as in a game of cards – and this communicologist and student of sociology does believe that politics is, indeed, a game of cards and chance.

Some Zimbabweans working in South Africa claimed when visiting Bulawayo last week that South Africans expected Dr Nkosazana Zuma to become the next South African Head of State.

However, the visitors – who declined to be identified as their information was not official – also said Dr Nkosazana Zuma could face an uphill battle for the country’s top post as the Zulu people reportedly were averse to being ruled by a woman president.

Be that as it may, with our own President Robert Mugabe as the immediate past chairman of the AU, and with Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma in place right now, it would perfectly be in order for Sadc to hug itself with glee for contributing two of its eminent citizens to serve the continental body in the different capacities at the same time as Africa trudges ahead and no doubt into a brave new future.

The injiva also referred to strong talk about the possibility of Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, Deputy President of the ruling African National Congress, succeeding the incumbent head of state, Mr Zuma.

A stalwart of the anti-white racist rule, Mr Ramaphosa ran errands between the apartheid regime in Pretoria and Robben Island in negotiations that culminated with Nelson Mandela’s release from 27 years of rustication on that island prison for his anti-apartheid political campaign in 1992.

Much-revered not only by South Africans but by the entire progressive world where he became a household name, Mr Mandela would in 1994 become post-apartheid South Africa’s first black president for a single five year term before being succeeded by Mr Thabo Mbeki who, like his predecessor, was – and still is a consummate pan-Africanist – before being recalled himself and with Mr Zuma taking over the reins of power.

In the circumstances, the way in which South African politics will trend in the immediate future will obviously determine the more suitable successor to president Zuma between Dr Nkosazana Zuma and Mr Ramaphosa.

In view of the fact that the enemies of black freedom are as much alive and active today as they were in the era of the struggle for liberation, this pen feels that, like never before, that African countries need to heal whatever petty differences exist between and among them in order to forge an impregnable solidarity for their survival together against the unrepentant enemy at large.