Dlamini was a member of parliament from 1978 before becoming
Minister of Finance from 1984 to 1993. He was also an executive director of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF). From 1996 to 2003, he was prime minister, and in 2003 he became a member of
King Mswati III's advisory council. Dlamini was a candidate, backed by the Swazi government, for the position of
Chairperson of the African Union Commission in early 2008. The government withdrew his candidacy out of solidarity with the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) so that SADC could present a single candidate. In 2013, he was appointed for the third time in the ninth parliament. ==Personal life==