Johannesburg - African Union (AU) Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma appears to have finally made up her mind not to run for a second term in the job.
Her spokesperson confirmed on Friday that she did not submit an application to be a candidate by the deadline on Thursday. This strongly suggests she will return to South Africa in July when her first term ends.
Dlamini-Zuma is widely touted as a strong candidate to succeed her former husband, President Jacob Zuma, as president of the ruling ANC at its next elective conference in 2017 and then as South African president in 2019.
Her spokesperson at the AU, Jacob Enoh Eben, said today that Dlamini Zuma did not submit her application by Thursday's deadline - three months before the next AU summit in Kigali, Rwanda, where the next AU Commission chairperson is to be elected.
“Sometimes candidates and member states also submit late,” he added.
But asked if she might still submit her application late, he said: “One could say most unlikely but you never know.”
It is not yet clear who is in the running to succeed Dlamini Zuma.
Enoh Eben said that the office of the AU's legal counsel was still compiling the list of candidates to be submitted to an expert panel and then a ministerial committee. After that the names would be disclosed.
Algerian foreign minister Ramtane Lamamra has been widely touted as the most likely successor, though some questions have been raised about his eligibility. He previously served two terms as the AU's peace and security commissioner which some experts say will disqualify him from running for the chairperson's job, because of a two-term limit for service on the commission, written into the AU's rules.
Others say that since another Algerian, Smail Chergui, is now the peace and security commissioner, Lamamra will not be entitled to be chairperson as only one person from any country is allowed on the commission at the same time.
These observers believe that Algeria would prefer to retain the chair of the peace and security commission as it is growing increasingly influential through its attempts to curb the many conflicts in Africa.
According to the AFP news agency, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) feels it is entitled to a second term and is pushing the name of Botswana's Foreign Minister, 64-year old Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi. Venson-Moitoi was a journalist before joining her government's civil service.
Dlamini-Zuma, 67, was the first woman to hold the AU's top job when she was elected in 2012 after a bitter campaign against the incumbent, Jean Ping of Gabon, who was running for a second term, and after several rounds of voting over six months.
Dlamini Zuma had served as health minister in President Nelson Mandela's cabinet, as foreign minister in President Thabo Mbeki's cabinet and as home affairs minister in Zuma's first term cabinet.
She would be leaving the AU with many projects incomplete, such as a major effort to make the organisation far less dependent on donor financing.
African News Agency
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