Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma may soon return to government in South Africa after she handed over reigns of the African Union Commission (AUC) chairmanship.

Dr Dlamini-Zuma is being tipped for a Cabinet position in President Jacob Zuma’s administration in what sources say would ease her path to succeed him as national leader.

President Zuma is expected reshuffle the Cabinet in mid-April with top government sources saying he will appoint her.

Dr Dlamini-Zuma returned home on Wednesday after completing her AUC tenure in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

She was welcomed at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg by ruling African National Congress (ANC) youth and women leagues, who said they believe she has a big role to play in government.

"Those that support her believe assigning her will bolster her profile and increase her chances of replacing Msholozi [Zuma] as ANC president at a conference in December. He will appoint her and it won't be in any controversial ministry," the source told Africa Review.

A deputy minister known to be loyal to Mr Zuma also said a disloyal Cabinet member was likely to "take the fall".

"We're aware of plans to assign her to Cabinet and obviously you have ministers who have shown they are not on the president's side. One of them is likely to take the fall," the deputy minister said.

Mr Zuma is on record as saying the ANC is ready for a female leader and the job will not automatically go to his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa.

Mr Ramaphosa is considered Dr Dlamini-Zuma's biggest challenger for the top post.

The winner of the presidency of the ruling party would be a strong favourite to succeed Mr Zuma as president after the presidential elections in 2019.

The ANC has won every election since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Dr Dlamini-Zuma has held three Cabinet positions before heading to Addis to take up the AUC chairmanship.

In 1994 Nelson Mandela appointed her Health minister.

She was then named Foreign Affairs minister after former President Thabo Mbeki took office in 1999, a post she held for a decade.

In 2009, Dr Dlamini-Zuma was reassigned to the Home Affairs ministry.

She is credited for overseeing a successful overhaul of the system used in issuing identity documents, passports and birth certificates.

She was elected chairperson of the AU Commission in July 2012.

Nic Borain, a political analyst says Mr Zuma is likely to position her at the centre of ANC politics.

“Those running her campaign, and it’s widely speculated that Jacob Zuma is backing her, would probably try and move her into a more central role in politics before the party’s elective conference," he said.

A politics professor at the University of Witwatersrand, Susan Booysen, says a Cabinet post would be massively beneficial for her campaign "because she could get a position that would push her into the limelight".

Dr Dlamini-Zuma, 67, was married to President Zuma, 74, but divorced in 1998 and have four children together.