AU chooses South Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as its new leader

The former wife of South African president Jacob Zuma was elected the African Union Commission chairperson on Sunday in the 19th African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital city of Addis Ababa.

    The South African minister managed to beat the incumbent Jean Ping of Gabon, following the two officials’ failure to win two-thirds of the vote at the last summit six months ago.

A final confidence vote of 37 in favor gave her the 60 percent majority she needed to be elected.

The English speaking countries threw their weight behind Dlamini-Zuka and the French-speaking countries supported Ping.

During the two-day summit, the AU leaders discussed the continent’s troubles, including instability in the West African country of Mali, violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the unresolved disputes between Sudan and South Sudan.