Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma lost her bid to become the first woman elected to lead the ANC. She was defeated by Cyril Ramaphosa despite her lengthy and ambitious campaign for the position. Her loss did not send any shock waves across the country because her campaign had been marred by questionable decisions and conduct. The 68-year-old former chairwoman of the African Union (AU) Commission was meant to take the reins from an embattled President Jacob Zuma, whose unsavoury relationship with the law had stripped the ANC presidency of its once-high moral standing.
Dlamini-Zuma smiled blissfully as her former husband endorsed her candidacy on several public platforms. She preached unity, ethical governance and the prioritisation of constitutionalism, values that seemed shallow because of the company she kept. Had she won, her victory would have broken yet another glass ceiling for women in SA and Africa — her appointment at the AU in 2012 was a first for women. She would have become th...
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