Zenani “Zeni” Dlamini was born in Soweto in 1959 and she is the first daughter of her former president father Nelson Mandela, 94 to second wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Mandela-Dlamini 54, is a businesswoman and the first of anti-apartheid hero Mandela’s surviving children to go into public life.
Remember Mandela’s historic inauguration in 1994? Well it was Zenani who stood next to her father dressed in a chic red jacket and a black formal hat.
She was wildly popular as a child but like everyone with the Mandela name, burdened by her father’s legacy. She was schooled in South Africa, Swaziland and the United States, where she studied science at Boston University.
Zeni wisely flew the family nest shortly after their arrival in Brandfort. To the distress of her father, who wanted her to persist with her studies, she married a Swazi prince. Mrs. Mandela-Dlamini was a toddler when her father was imprisoned in South Africa and she was not allowed to visit him in jail until she was 16 years old. Mandela was still in prison when she married Swazi Prince Thumbumuzi Dlamini in 1973 becoming a Swazi princess. They have two sons and lived in Boston until their divorce.
In July 2012 it was announced Zenani would become the new ambassador of the Republic of South Africa to Argentina! Argentina’s government said it accepted her appointment and that it will represent “the importance of Argentina for the South African government.”
She has built her career in business and is expected to use that experience to boost trade between South Africa and Argentina, currently pegged at $1.3 billion a year.
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