Dlamini Zuma: I'm ready to serve my country – if asked

Former AU Commission head Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has dismissed talk that she already has a slate to take to the ANC’s watershed elective conference in December.

Dlamini Zuma is one of several names touted for the race to succeed President Jacob Zuma, whose term as ANC leader ends in December. Her biggest challenge will probably come from Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has shown that he will contest the position if nominated.

Dlamini Zuma is adamant that she isn’t campaigning yet, but she is working the ground for the ANC in preparation for the party’s policy conference next month, the elective conference in December and the national elections in 2019.

She is doing this work as a member of the ANC Women’s League and member of the party’s national executive committee.

“The issue is not open yet, so I cannot be talking to anyone before we know if I will be nominated.

None of us know if we will be nominated by branches, or if we will have the threshold,” she says. “But I am ready to serve my party and my country if asked to.”

She emphasises that she is not campaigning, although she has been criss-crossing the country since she returned from Ethiopia in March.

“We are going where the people invite us: churches, schools. We want to be accessible to society, not just ANC structures. And when I am there I don’t talk about campaigning, I talk about the ANC, how the party can do better, how we can make life better for our people,” she says.

“I am going around the country listening to the people. Fortunately, they respect and love me for who I am. They don’t see me as Zuma’s ex-wife. It’s the media and some factions of the ANC that run with that narrative. It’s deliberate – to paint me as someone who has no life of her own, and yet I have spent all my life in the Struggle.”

Dlamini Zuma was speaking to The Star in a wide-ranging interview – her first since she returned home – on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on Africa in Durban.

Some media reports have linked her to the so-called Premier League, a clandestine political grouping that is allegedly made up of premiers Ace Magashule (Free State), David Mabuza (Mpumalanga) and Supra Mahumapelo (North West).

The group is also reported to have close links with the politically connected Gupta family, President Zuma’s close friends and business partners of his son Duduzane.

Dlamini Zuma dismisses the link outright. “I read about it in the media. I don’t belong to any such slate or faction. I work with comrades; all comrades who want to work with me and want the ANC to succeed.”

She adds that factions have destroyed the ANC and that the party needs to close ranks ahead of the December conference and emerge united and strong as it prepares for the national elections in 2019.

To get rid of factionalism and corruption, the party needs to address the issue of money and vote-buying, and return to its core values, she believes.

“When you run without being nominated, and you choose who you want to work with, you cause divisions. You don’t unite around names.

‘‘We need to unite around something, not names. We need unity of purpose, unity in action. We must talk as the ANC and say: What are our values? Only then can we say: Who is best to do what.”

Dlamini Zuma says she is fortunate to have a good relationship with most of her comrades of many years, some of whom may be perceived to belong to a different faction.

“I don’t own comrades or disown comrades, and don’t go around with money bags. I would rather you don’t vote for me if I have to buy votes,” she says firmly.

“I don’t think I am a Messiah who should be liked by everyone. I believe we can’t have a winner-takes-all approach. We need to unite the ANC, and the ‘nothing but me’ approach won’t help us.”

She says she has a good relationship with Ramaphosa, her key opponent in the presidential race. “We have never had a bad relationship. He came to Addis from working in South Sudan. I cooked dinner and we sat and discussed issues.

“My view is that it is not up to him or me to decide. That’s where we make mistakes. A small group of people sit in a corner and decide. My view is that the ANC membership decides who leads the party. I don’t even know if I will be nominated at all.”

She says her programme is run by the ANC Women’s League, the first party structure to endorse her to run for president. “They don’t come to me to say ‘come campaign here or there…’ they say ‘come and meet the people’.”

She says that ahead of the conference she is meeting many people to listen to them, and this is part of her own efforts to unite the party and to reconnect with society.

“If, going into December, we don’t reconnect with the people, we will be in trouble in 2019,” she warns.

Being president was never in her dreams, she reveals.

“Somebody once said unambitious people are a danger to society. I have always been ambitious to do my best and make a difference, which is why I became a doctor.

“But I have never had presidential ambitions. But if given that responsibility – and it is a heavy responsibility – I will do it with distinction.”

Recently, it was reported that she had been rejected by Xhosa King Mpendulo Sigcawu, on whom she had paid a courtesy visit. Some political analysts believed this meant she wouldn’t win the Eastern Cape if she ran for president.

But she dismisses this as a misunderstanding and sensationalism. “I was invited to the king’s place, I didn’t invite myself.

‘‘If you are welcome, they slaughter a cow for you. That’s what they did for me. I spent a whole day there.”

Ncube is editor of The Star