There was a plot to assassinate African Union Commission (AUC) chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma several days after she took up the post, Al-Jazeera has reported on its website.

According to leaked secret intelligence documents posted on their site this week, Dlamini-Zuma allegedly faced “an eminent threat” to her life in Addis Ababa, which also hosts the AU headquarters, in October 2012.

The documents allege that spies in Addis Ababa were alerted to a plot “by an unnamed state” to kill President Jacob Zuma’s former wife.

The documents also allege that South African and Ethiopian intelligence agencies had been unprepared for the threat, for which they blamed Sudan.

Amid the threat, South Africa’s security chiefs held an emergency meeting, where acting head of South African military intelligence, General T Nyembe, also warned that there had been “another alert which further pointed out a potential assassination plot” to be carried out at a different venue”.

The attack did not happen.

The documents say that the director of Ethiopia’s National Intelligence and Security Service, Hadera Abera, explained that his service has crosschecked the names of the plotters with “all entry points especially those bordering Sudan”.

They found no matches, and the documents do not reveal the names of the plotters.

Dlamini-Zuma was elected to the post in July 12 and took office in October. SAPA