Presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has a house allocated to her at president Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead, according to a report in the Sunday Times.<\/p>\n
The report said that Dlamini-Zuma, who along with deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, is the front-runner for the top ANC post in December, ‘spends a lot of time’ at the compound.<\/p>\n
Dlamini-Zuma and Zuma were divorced in 1998 and have four children together. It is reported that the two have become close again, with president Zuma saying that the ruling party is ready for a female leader.<\/p>\n
The Sunday Times said that at least five family members confirmed that Dlamini-Zuma and her children have a house inside Zuma’s Nkandla compound.<\/p>\n
Zuma’s relatives also noted that Dlamini-Zuma had become ‘a regular visitor to Nkandla over the past two years’.<\/p>\n
“Yes, she has a house that she uses in the complex and it’s used by her and her children whenever they are around,” one relative said.<\/p>\n
“In Zulu culture there’s no divorce. Nothing happens here without her knowing. Even when we have functions she comes and she has a house,” a source told the paper.<\/p>\n
Dlamini-Zuma’s spokesman, Vukani Lumumba Mthintso, however, denied that she has a house in Nkandla. “But the chairperson lives in Addis Ababa, not in Nkandla,” he said.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, EFF leader Julius Malema weighed in on the ANC succession debate ahead of the ruling party\u2019s 54th national elective conference in December.<\/p>\n
\u201cNkosazana Dlamini-Zuma will be president if Zuma wants her to be,\u201d said Malema.<\/p>\n
But the EFF commander-in-chief said if she does emerge victorious it would have little to do with affirming her abilities to lead the party as its first female president.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat thing of South Africa being ready for a female president is just rhetoric. He\u2019s trying to sound smart, to appear like he supports women,\u201d Malema said.<\/p>\n
He claimed Dlamini-Zuma\u2019s task, if she does take over from Zuma, would be to protect him from facing corruption charges.<\/p>\n
According to Nomura analyst, Peter Attard Montalto, the outcome to the presidential run for control of the ANC is ultimately tipped in Zuma\u2019s favour, because an elective conference is essentially an aggregation of the ANC at branch level.<\/p>\n
The elective conference will not be decided by set piece speeches, media or other forum \u2013 it will be the personal gerrymandering of individual branch level votes, Attard Montalto said in a recent note.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think the Zuma camp could \u2018play dirty\u2019 in a way the anti-Zuma camp would be less inclined to. This will play to Zuma\u2019s ultimate skill, which is internal party management.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs such a key but likely largely overlooked issue in 2017 would be the ebb and flow of branch level structures \u2013 some get shut, others are opened, leadership at branch level gets cycled over, sometimes violently, provincial structures are brought to bear at the branch level.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is how the Zuma camp could win \u2013 and is why we think the most likely outcome is that they will,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n