Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma often referred to by her initials NDZ, is a South African politician, medical doctor, and former anti-apartheid activist. A long-standing member of the African National Congress (ANC), she currently serves as Chancellor of the University of Limpopo.
Since the advent of democracy in 1994, Dlamini-Zuma has served in the cabinet of every post-apartheid president. She was Minister of Health under Nelson Mandela, Minister of Foreign Affairs under Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe, and Minister of Home Affairs under Jacob Zuma, where she was credited with reforming a struggling department. During Cyril Ramaphosa’s second term, she also briefly served as Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities.
Under President Ramaphosa, she went on to serve as Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, overseeing the National Planning Commission, before becoming Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. In this role, she was a central and sometimes controversial figure in enforcing South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown regulations.
Between 2012 and 2017, she was Chairperson of the African Union Commission, the first woman to lead either the Commission or its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity. Her tenure, like much of her career, attracted both recognition and controversy.
Dlamini-Zuma has been a member of the ANC National Executive Committee since the early 1990s and has twice contested senior leadership positions within the party. She was defeated by Kgalema Motlanthe for the deputy presidency in 2007, and narrowly lost the ANC presidency to Cyril Ramaphosa in 2017.
