“She was an average performing chairperson. She focused on security, but not much was done on uniting Africans divided along the francophone and anglophone lines,’’ Andre Duvenhage, a political science Professor at the North West University told Anadolu Agency Monday.

Dlamini-Zuma, 68, succeeded Gabon’s Jean Ping in 2012, after a hotly contested election making her the first female African Union chair.

The election created division between anglophone and francophone countries after South Africa played a major role in lobbying for Dlamini-Zuma’s election.

Diplomatic sources told Anadolu Agency that South Africa breached a gentleman’s agreement that did not allow African powerhouses to field a candidate for the top AU job, at the time, but it went ahead anyway.

Professor Duvenhage, criticized Dlamini-Zuma for spending too much time in South Africa, strategizing on how to become the next president of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), instead of focusing on her job in Addis Ababa.

“She always had one foot back in South Africa, hoping to secure a job after the end of her tenure. She was never whole-heartedly at the AU,” Professor Susan Booysen of the University Of Witwatersrand School Of Governance in Johannesburg agrees.