\n \t\t\t \t\t\t
![\"Copy](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/e8dc8_461115007.jpg\")
<\/p>\n \t
\n \t\t\t \t\t\t <\/p>\n
Jacoline Prinsloo<\/p>\n
Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma during a press conference at the African Union headquarters, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.<\/p>\n
\n
\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t <\/p>\n
ADDIS ABABA: Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was last night elected as the first woman to head the African Union. <\/p>\n
Dlamini-Zuma, 63, who received 37 votes in the last round of voting \u2013 she had needed 34 to win \u2013 defeated incumbent and rival Jean Ping of Gabon, who had headed the steering body |of the 54-member organisation since 2008. <\/p>\n
\u201cNow we have the African Union chair Madam Zuma (sic), who will preside over the destiny of this institution,\u201d Benin\u2019s president and AU chairman Thomas Boni Yayi said. <\/p>\n
Her former husband, President Jacob Zuma, was one of the first to offer his congratulations after the vote at the AU summit in the Ethiopian capital. \u201cIt means a lot for Africa… for the continent, unity and the empowerment of women \u2013 very important,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a freedom fighter, not a bureaucrat or a diplomat,\u201d said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. <\/p>\n
Dlamini-Zuma\u2019s win follows her challenge six months ago to unseat Ping, the former commission chairman, which ended in deadlock after neither won the required two-thirds of the vote, leaving Ping in the post. <\/p>\n
Noureddine Mezni, spokesperson for the outgoing chairman, said that Ping had acknowledged defeat. <\/p>\n
He \u201chas accepted the results of the elections and wishes Madame Dlamini-Zuma the very best. He expressed his readiness to co-operate with her to work together for the unity of the continent.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good for southern Africa. We (in southern Africa) never had this job,\u201d a delegate from Zimbabwe said. <\/p>\n
Officials said the elections went to four rounds of voting before Dlamini-Zuma won 37 votes, three more than the required majority, to confirm her win over Ping. <\/p>\n
Jakkie Cilliers of the SA-based Institute for Security Studies said Dlamini-Zuma\u2019s score crept up from one round of voting to the next. \u201cShe got ahead in the first round and after that the momentum kicked in,\u201d said Cilliers. <\/p>\n
Dlamini-Zuma\u2019s win had brought \u201cclarity as to who\u2019s in charge\u201d at the AU, after six months of deadlock over the leadership issue, he added. <\/p>\n
Some analysts say SA has violated an unwritten tradition that continental powerhouses do not run candidates for the post, but leave smaller nations to take the job. Before the vote however, Dlamini-Zuma played down concerns. \u201cI don\u2019t think the continent will be polarised,\u201d she said. The winner would \u201cmake sure they work with everybody\u201d, she added. <\/p>\n
Cilliers said he was optimistic that divisions created by the vote would heal. \u201cShe\u2019ll be an inclusive chair… She was a very competent foreign minister and even better at home affairs,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The DA also congratulated Dlamini-Zuma. \u201cShe has the appropriate skills and competence to transform the AU into an efficient and effective body,\u201d said party MP Ian Davidson. <\/p>\n
Dlamini-Zuma faces immediate challenges as the AU tries to gain UN Security Council backing for a military intervention in northern Mali, where local and foreign al-Qaeda-linked jihadists seized control. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jacoline Prinsloo Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma during a press conference at the African Union headquarters, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. ADDIS ABABA: Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was last night elected as the first woman to head the African Union. Dlamini-Zuma, 63, who received 37 votes in the last round of voting \u2013 she had needed 34 to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-12494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}