‘JZ won’t hide behind me’

The former wife of President Jacob Zuma yesterday dismissed criticism her bid to succeed him in office is a strategy to protect him from criminal prosecution.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, pictured, the former chief of the African Union Commission, is a leading candidate to replace Zuma as head of the ANC in December and as national president within two years.

Zuma is widely seen as favouring Dlamini-Zuma, with whom he has four children, ahead of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa in the race that could split the ANC.

Dlamini-Zuma said she found it “offensive” to be seen as her ex-husband’s chosen candidate to shield him from the courts when he leaves office.

“I will not be elected by President Jacob Zuma,” she said.

“If I am elected, I will be elected by South Africans, and they will have reasons why they elect me – and that is why I find it offensive.”

Dlamini-Zuma, 68, a former health minister, has not publicly declared her candidacy in the ANC leadership battle. But she has campaigned across the country in recent weeks, drumming up support ahead of the conference in December where delegates will elect their new leader.

Zuma, who completes his final term in 2019, faces almost 800 corruption charges that may be reinstated over a multibillion-rands arms deal in the ’90s.

Dlamini-Zuma was an anti-apartheid student activist who fled into exile in Britain to qualify as a doctor before meeting Zuma in Swaziland.

They married in 1982 and divorced in 1998. –