She's A Tough One

Lindiwe Sisulu is ready to run for president of the ANC, and cleaning up the mess within her beloved party is top of her agenda.

- Gabisile Ngcobo 

RIDICULOUS. That’s what she thought when people first started suggesting she throw her hat into the ring and enter the race for ANC president.She wasn’t going to do this, she told herself.

She’d just buried her husband and, with very little time on her hands, a campaign trail was the last thing she needed.

But as time went by the idea of having a woman at the helm of the ruling party began to excite her. “I think we’re ready for it,” she says. “South Africa is the kind of democracy that would take easily to a woman president.”

Lindiwe Sisulu is sitting in the living room of her ministerial residence in Pretoria, a stone’s throw from the Union Buildings. It’s a home as stylish as the fashion-forward minister of human settlements, adorned with bowls of flowers and family photographs.

Sisulu herself is as groomed as ever in a linen suit, black polka-dot stockings and gold-plated stilettos. She’s just returned from a trip to Cape Town and her assistant serves her a cup of tea (with two teabags) but she becomes so engrossed in conversation she doesn’t lift the cup once.

The 63-year-old mom of five has been outspoken in her criticism of the rot within the ANC and surprised many when she came out in support of outspoken MP Makhosi Khoza’s decision to leave the party she’d dedicated her life to.

Khoza lamented the “kleptocracy” within its ranks and said the current ANC felt “alien” to her.