South African politics has entered a new era with the election of Jacob Zuma as president of the ruling African National Congress. The 65-year-old former guerilla fighter scored a resounding victory over Thabo Mbeki, setting up the prospect of him becoming the next president of South Africa in 2009.
Party delegates voting yesterday overlooked Mr Zuma's chequered past, his embarrassing rape trial last year, not to mention allegations of corruption that are set to land him in court early next year.
The result sees the prospect of two centres of power in South Africa, with Mr Mbeki ensconced in Union Buildings for the next 18 months, potentially as a "lame duck" president of the country.
Mr Zuma becomes leader of the ANC with immediate effect but has indicated he will not try to take over the reins of government until Mr Mbeki completes his term.
Allies of Mr Zuma also filled the next five most senior vacancies in the ANC in straight run-offs with Mbeki-loyalists. South Africa's deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the first woman to hold such a high office in the country, suffered the most humiliating defeat of the evening - losing out by almost 1,000 votes to former Mpumalanga premier Mathews Phosa in the race for treasurer general.
Women's rights groups will be particularly annoyed, not least because of Mr Zuma's controversial views on adultery, polygamy and HIV/Aids. The business community may also react negatively, given Mr Zuma's dependence on the trade union umbrella group Cosatu and the South African Communist Party for support. Both are campaigning for the nationalisation of major industries and policies to accelerate the reduction of poverty in a country with huge inequalities.
Markets were jittery yesterday ahead of the announcement, with the rand falling to a three-week low against the dollar.
Just under 4,000 delegates representing ANC branches nationwide voted in the elections at a special selection convention in the northern province of Limpopo. Supporters of Mr Zuma who booed cabinet ministers and heckled Mr Mbeki earlier this week erupted into song when the results were announced, chanting "Awuleth' uMshini Wami" [Bring me my machine-gun] - a former struggle anthem which Mr Zuma adopted as his own.
In accordance with tradition, the two candidates for president joined each other on stage after the result. Mr Mbeki, who got 1,505 votes to Mr Zuma's 2,329 votes, embraced the victor and then returned to the floor as an ordinary member of the party which he had led for the past decade as Nelson Mandela's successor. Mr Zuma then took his seat at the head of the stage, looking nervous and then smiling and clasping his hands together in thanks. While the handover gave an illusion of unity, there was no disguising the deep divisions that have opened up in the party.
The party is facing a crisis over Mr Zuma's pending corruption case. Even close ally Kgalema Motlanthe - the ANC's newly-elected deputy president - has described the planned trial as "very difficult to deal with".