Celani Sikhakhane
A former ANC MP who was once dubbed in the media as former president Jacob Zuma’s “Sugar Mama” is running for the ruling party’s presidency ahead of the December elective conference.
Ziphora Sizani Dlamini-Dubazane from Nkumbanyuswa in Bulwer has accepted her branch nomination in Pietermaritzburg, kwaDambuza to run for the ANC presidential position.
In an interview with Newzroom Afrika on 21 May she said she feels that the resolutions that were taken at the ANC’s 54th elective conference at Nasrec have never been implemented.
Dlamini-Dubazane first made headlines when she bought a palatial home at Forest Town in Johannesburg in 2005 for Zuma’s use after he was fired as deputy president by former president Thabo Mbeki.
This is when the Mail and Guardian labelled her as Zuma’s “sugar mama”.
She was also involved in controversial deals, including receiving a R3.6 million loan from the Ithala Development Finance Corporation. Ithala was funded by the KwaZulu-Natal government and when her company fell into arrears, she arranged for her farm in Mkuze, north of KZN, to be bought by the government under the land restitution programme.
When asked by Newzroom Afrika this week why she accepted the nomination, she said, “It is because of the concern of the branches that what was resolved in Nasrec is not taking off. It has never been implemented.
“What we see is that the organisation is regressing, it’s going back and as a result South Africans are losing hope and trust in the ANC. This has proven to the ANC losing power in the local government elections,” said Dlamini-Dubazane.
She said there are policies such as the National Development Plan that ought to be implemented in government but it has never happened and that is why she is the right person to do so.
She has intensified her campaign in different regions including in Mzala Nxumalo and Moses Mabhida regions.
She told journalists that she doesn’t have a problem being labelled as Zuma’s ally because he was her commander-in-exile.
Dlamini-Dubazane has a long history with the ANC during the struggle and was a member of the United Democratic Front in the 1980s.
She was the deputy director of the National Department of Health while Nkosazane Dlamini Zuma was minister of health in the 1990s. They come from the same area of Bulwer.
Dlamini-Dubazane was an ANC MP from 2009 to 2019.
She is the second KZN ANC leader to accept a presidential candidacy, after former health minister Zweli Mkhize.
