South African cabinet minister and former African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Sunday openly challenged ruling African National Congress president Cyril Ramaphosa to the party’s leadership.
The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, who lost the ANC presidency in the last party contest in 2017, has again thrown her hat into the contest for leadership of one of South Africa’s ruling party.
She denounced the party’s step-aside rule as unjust, saying it was partly to blame for exacerbating divisions in the ANC ranks.
She said the rule, which requires any top ANC official with a court case to leave office until he/she is cleared by the court, was inconsistent with the country’s constitution.
She insisted the party must stand for justice as opposed “to finding people guilty and wishing them to prove themselves innocent.”
A National Executive Committee member of the party, Dlamini-Zuma sees herself as an alternative choice to the ANC presidency at the forthcoming elective conference in December this year.
Dlamini-Zuma served as AU Commission chief from 2012 to 2016.
NM/jn/APA