AU's Dlamini-Zuma to retire when terms ends

African Union Commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma will quit her responsibilities from the 54-member bloc her spokesman said on Friday.

"AU Commission Chair Dlamini-Zuma didn't submit an application for a second term when the deadline closed on Thursday, 31 March," her spokesman Jacob Enoh Eben said.

Her successor is still not appointed while the candidates are not known yet. The new AU Commission chief will be appointed in the next AU summit in the Rwandan capital Kigali.

However, Algerian Foreign Minister, and former AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, Ramtane Lamamra, is a possible candidate.

But SADC countries, the regional organisation in Southern Africa, appear determined to keep the role, pushing the name of Botswana's Foreign Minister, 64-year old Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi. She was a journalist before joining her government's civil service.

Dlamini-Zuma, 67, was the first woman to hold the AU's chief position when she was elected in 2012.

Dlamini-Zuma has served as health, interior and foreign minister in South Africa while her husband is South African President Jacob Zuma.