Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma

Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini, a Zulu, was born in Natal, the eldest of eight children. She completed high school at the Amanzimtoti Training College in 1967.[5]

In 1971, she started her studies in Zoology and Botany at the University of Zululand, where she obtained a Bachelor's degree in Science (BSc). She subsequently began her medical studies at the University of Natal, where she became an active underground member of South African Students Organisation, and was elected as its deputy president in 1976. She was exiled in the same year and finished her studies abroad at the University of Bristol in the UK in 1978.[6]

Subsequently, she worked as a medical doctor at the Mbabane Government Hospital in Swaziland, where she met her future husband, previous ANC party president Jacob Zuma.

In 1985, Dlamini-Zuma returned to the United Kingdom to complete a diploma in tropical child health from Liverpool University's School of Tropical Medicine. After receiving her diploma, she worked for the ANC Regional Health Committee before accepting the position of director of the Health and Refugee Trust, a British non-governmental organisation. During the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) negotiations in 1992, she was part of the Gender Advisory Committee.

She was suggested as a possible ANC candidate for the Presidency in the 2009 election and for the leadership of the party.[7][8][9]

Dlamini-Zuma was nominated for the ANC political party's deputy presidency by four provinces aligned to President Thabo Mbeki,[10] while the five provinces backing her ex-husband ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma preferred her as the national chairperson.[11] She was elected to the ANC's 80-member National Executive Committee in December 2007.[12]

The speculation of another cabinet reshuffle mounted up stating her to replace with Blade Nzimande as a Higher Education Minister which she denied later.[13][14]

In January 2012, while still heading the Department of Home Affairs, Dlamini-Zuma contested the position of Chairperson of the African Union Commission. In doing so, she broke an "unwritten rule" that major African powers do not put forward candidates for AU positions.[41][42][43]

This angered many AU states, leading to a deadlock in the first election,[42][44] despite Dlamini-Zuma's backing by the fifteen states comprising the Southern African Development Community.[28][45] As a consequence of the failure to secure a two-thirds majority of the vote, incumbent Jean Ping's term was extended by six months,[46][47] until a second election on July 15 at the nineteenth session of the Assembly of the African Union elected Dlamini-Zuma to the position.[48][49] The vote was largely divided along language lines—Francophone states against Anglophone states.[28][50]

Dlamini-Zuma was unpopular and disliked among AU officials for her apparent disinterest and aloofness, and her absenteeism. Her leadership as chairperson was considered a disappointing failure,[26][51][52][53][54] although she was acknowledged for the managerial improvements she made.[44]

Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini married Jacob Zuma, with whom she has four children: Msholozi (born 1982); Gugulethu Zuma-Ncube (born 1984), who married the son of Zimbabwean politician and President of the MDC, Welshman Ncube; Nokuthula Nomaqhawe (born 1987); and their youngest daughter, Thuthukile Zuma, who was controversially appointed Chief of Staff in the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services in 2014.[62]

Dlamini, Zuma's third wife, divorced him in June 1998.[10][63]

In 2015, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.[64]