Women’s struggle for highest office

IN 2005, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka was sworn in as South Africa’s first female deputy president post-1994 – a position she would hold until 2007 when the ANC, at its national elective conference in Polokwane elected new leaders.

A year later, former National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete served in the same position for several months under then-president Kgalema Motlanthe.

Former Free State premier and communications minister, the late Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, also had a temporary stint where she was announced as acting president