President Jacob Zuma's former wife has been sworn in as a Member of the parliament on Thursday, ahead of her campaign to become president of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
The ANC, which has been governing the country since the end of apartheid in 1994, will elect its new leader at a conference in December.
"Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has had a problem with her campaign. Now President Zuma wants to give her a boost by bringing her to parliament," Andre Duvenhage, political science professor at the Northwest University, told Anadolu Agency.
He said the president might also reshuffle his cabinet and make Dlamini-Zuma a minister to give her political millage in competing against her rival, current deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.
Dlamini-Zuma, 67, previously served as former chairwoman of the African Union Commission and held several ministerial positions under different presidents of the country.
"Wherever and whatever @MYANC deploys me to do to improve the lives of Africans, I shall undertake in their interest without fear or favour," she wrote on her Twitter account while referring to the ANC.
Several candidates have declared interest to contest for the ANC presidency but analysts say the race will narrow down to a contest between Dlamini-Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa.
Whoever wins will almost certainly become South Africa's next president since the ANC still enjoys majority support.
Meanwhile, Makhosi Khoza, a strong critic of president Zuma and outspoken ANC lawmaker, has resigned from the party, calling it "corrupt".
"I am leaving the ANC of Jacob Zuma. This ANC is very corrupt to the core. It has no organizational capacity to self-correct," she said in her resignation tweet Thursday.
Khoza became popular when she publicly asked Zuma to resign a few months ago after he was accused of several corruption scandals.
