This was the first time the ANC failed to secure the majority after the 29th May election when other parties like Zuma's outfit uMkhonto WeSizwe (MK), Malema's allied party the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the DA strengthened their numbers in the parliament.

Ramaphosa won accordingly in Parliament against a surprise candidate who was also nominated — Julius Malema of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters. Ramaphosa received 283 votes to Malema's 44 in the 400-member house.

South Africa has been undergoing pressing problems that include some of the world's highest levels of unemployment, inequality and violent crime.

The ANC — the famed party of Nelson Mandela — had ruled South Africa with a comfortable majority since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994.

But it lost its 30-year majority in the humbling national election on May 29, a turning point for the country. The vote was held against the backdrop of widespread discontent from South Africans over high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment.