African National Congress (ANC) deputy leader Kgalema Motlanthe was sworn in as South Africa's caretaker president Thursday after being elected in a landslide vote in the National Assembly in Cape Town.
Motlanthe easily defeated Joe Seremane, candidate of the official opposition Democratic Alliance, 269 votes to 50 votes out of 360 cast. Forty-one votes were spoilt.
"I accordingly declare the honourable Kgalema Petras Motlanthe duly elected President of the Republic of South Africa," Chief Justice Pius Langa, presiding over the vote, announced.
His election comes four days after Thabo Mbeki submitted his resignation following demands by the ANC that he resign over a court finding of political interference in the prosecution of ANC leader Jacob Zuma.
Motlanthe is expected to preside only for six or seven months until general elections slated for April or May, after which, if the ANC wins as predicted, Zuma will take over. Zuma, who is not an MP, watched the vote from the speakers gallery. Mbeki was not present.
"Comrade Motlanthe has an impeccable record of selflessness and sacrifice in the struggle for a free South Africa," Ben Martins, an ANC MP said giving his biography.
"The ANC commends Comrade President Kgalema Motlanthe to you and the nation with a full confidence that he will serve with honour and humility to promote the unity of the nation as the constitution calls him to do."
Born on July 19, 1949 to a family of 13 children in Alexandra township near Johannesburg, the relatively little-known Motlanthe was politically active from an early age.
A year after the Soweto Uprising in 1976, he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison, where he rubbed shoulders with ANC stalwarts like Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu.
After his release he became general of the National Union of Mineworkers and later secretary general of the ANC in 1997.
At the ANC electoral conference in December 2007, where Jacob Zuma trounced former president Thabo Mbeki for the party leadership, Motlanthe emerged as a bridge between Zuma and Mbeki factions within the party.
He was rewarded by Zuma's supporters with the position of party deputy president.
Motlanthe has been repeatedly tipped to take over from Zuma, in the event that Zuma, who has been dogged by allegations of corruption, cannot assume or retain the presidency.
Motlanthe has denied coveting the job of president, saying he would rather coach South Africa's hapless Bafana Bafana football team or coach young ANC members in politics.
But some suspect he may be more ambitious than he lets on.
Telling the story of an Afrikaner settler who mistook a lion for a horse in the dark, the leader of the Freedom Front Plus, Pieter Mulder asked Zuma Thursday: "Does the ANC also know how to unharness a lion should it be necessary?"
Motlanthe's election was generally welcomed by opposition leaders, who called on him to move quickly to ease the concerns of South Africans over the recent spate of political uncertainty and tackle pressing issues facing the country, such as crime and delivery of basic services.
One of his first tasks will be to constitute a cabinet, after a third of Mbeki's cabinet - 11 ministers and three deputy ministers - resigned on Tuesday.
Denying there was a crisis, the ANC maintained half of the group had resigned merely as a matter of procedure, to be formally reappointed by Motlanthe. But two of those ministers - the public services and public works ministers - told the SAPA news agency Thursday they would not be returning, leaving Motlanthe with at least eight posts to fill, including defence.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, one of the world's longest-serving and most popular finance ministers, has confirmed he will be available to serve Motlanthe.
