Lindiwe Sisulu said to also be eyeing ANC's top job

Presidential hopeful Lindiwe Sisulu does not want to ride on the "female president" ticket as her name is bandied about as another possible candidate to succeed President Jacob Zuma.

The minister of human settlements was coy about her bid for the ANC presidency in an interview with the Sunday Times this week, but she was adamant she does not want to be considered for any job on the basis of her gender.

"I have not been in any position by virtue of being a female... I would not want to change my life now to be elected because I am a woman."

Would she agree to contest the ANC presidency ?

"I am not there yet because the ANC has very clear guidelines of how we get there and we are not there yet," she said.

But her aides said Sisulu's campaign was under way, and she is being considered as an option by those who believe she would be better than former AU Commission chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

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Another woman eyeing the post is National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete.

But Dlamini-Zuma appears to be ahead of the pack, having been formally endorsed by the national leadership of the ANC Women's League and the youth league in KwaZulu-Natal. No ANC structure has endorsed either Sisulu or Mbete.

Any one of the three would face a fierce challenge from Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Other leaders being considered by party structures include Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe, ANC treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize and Mpumalanga premier David Mabuza.

Sisulu lobbyists pointed to her record as one of the longest-serving ANC MPs. She also served in the executive during Nelson Mandela's time in office.

Sisulu said the raging debate within the ANC on whether there should be a woman president was a non-issue.

"The debate about having a female president shouldn't be a debate. I think we [are approaching an era in which] you will find the best will be women ... Why should we be thinking about it - the women in the ANC are as good as the men," she said.

Sisulu has a distinguished struggle pedigree, being the daughter of struggle leaders Walter and Albertina Sisulu. But her surname is not all she stands on. Having been an intelligence officer in Umkhonto weSizwe in exile, Sisulu believes she has earned her stripes. Before the ANC's unbanning, Sisulu was Zuma's main assistant in dealing with ANC intelligence.

Her first stint in government was as deputy minister of home affairs under Mandela. In 2001 she was appointed minister of intelligence.

Of her time in intelligence she said: "Nobody there would have thought of themselves senior to me. I have trained with them and worked with them. It would be a boys' club with a woman in charge."

Sisulu's CV also includes stints as minister for housing, defence, and public service and administration.

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But of all the portfolios, she said, she is most passionate about her current job.

Sisulu said women leaders in the ANC were as capable of leading the party as their male counterparts.

"My feeling around this is, let us work out what the criteria are. And I am certain that if you have to put six people there [vying for the position of ANC president], half of them are women and they will be as good as the other half," she said.

Sisulu said using gender as the only criterion to elect a president disempowered female leaders.

"If you look at the women in the ANC in the leadership, each one of them has earned her stripes... nobody has been put there because we were filling a quota."

Sisulu's critics were quick to point out her inability to "mobilise grass- roots ANC supporters" as a possible bump in her road to becoming ANC president.

She is often described as too sophisticated to capture the hearts of the rural masses.

But she compensates for that with more than 20 years of experience in government.

Sisulu said she remained passionate about politics and her housing portfolio but almost never looked forward to parliament anymore.

She said MPs' preoccupation with "one man" prevented them from adequately representing their constituencies.

"It is not about just [Zuma]. Those people ought to be doing something," she said.

hunterq@sundaytimes.co.za