We will constantly remind people Dlamini-Zuma is a woman leader – ANCWL

The ANC Women’s League’s campaign bid for Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to succeed President Jacob Zuma as the ruling party’s first woman leader was in full swing at the weekend.

The league’s president, Bathabile Dlamini, introduced Dlamini-Zuma at a grand opening of the Bretheren Mission Church in Thokoza on Saturday, saying the league would not shy away from campaigning for the former AU commission chairperson on the basis of her gender.

Dlamini said some people had taken exception to the ANCWL endorsing Dlamini-Zuma based on her gender.

“We will constantly remind people that she is a woman and she is a leader,” she said.

Though Dlamini-Zuma has not publicly thrown her hat in the ring for the ANC’s top job, she is said to have the backing of the so-called “Premier League” – an informal ANC lobby group led by the premiers and party provincial chairpersons of Free State, North West and Mpumalanga – the ANC Youth League and Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association.

The “NDZ” [Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma] campaign officially kicked off at another church earlier this month following Dlamini Zuma’s departure from the AU.

The ANC is yet to formally open its secession debate, with the party’s national leaders warning members against making pronouncements on the leadership race.

Dlamini told the congregation gathered at the grand opening Dlamini-Zuma will change the lives of South Africans if she is elected the ANC’s next leader.

She also fired back at the former AU chair’s critics, saying she changed the AU and didn’t fail in her role when she led the continental body.

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