Under pressure from leaders the African National Congress (ANC), Mbeki announced he would step down just days after Zuma was cleared. While party leaders cited Mbekis alleged interference in the corruption case against Zuma, Mbekis resignation culminated several years of bitter infighting between Zuma and Mbeki, which led to discord in the ANC. On Sep. 25, Parliament elected Kgalema Motlanthe, a labor leader who was imprisoned during apartheid, as president. Zuma must be a member of Parliament before he can be elected president. Parliamentary elections are expected in early 2009.

On his first day as president, Motlanthe acted to move beyond Mbekis resistance to using modern and effective methods, such as antirretroviral medicines, to tackle its AIDS crisis by replacing South Africas health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who has suggested that garlic, lemon juice, and beetroot could cure AIDS, with Barbara Hogan. The era of denialism is over, she said. More than 5.7 million South Africans are HIV-positive, the highest number of any country in the world.

In November, about 6,400 dissident members of the ANC held a convention in Johannesburg and decided to form a new party that will challenge the leadership of the ANC. The delegates, many of whom supported former president Mbeki, expressed dissatisfaction with the leadership of the party, calling it corrupt, authoritarian, and rotting. In December, the new party, the Congress of the People (COPE), selected former defense minister Mosiuoa Lekota as its president.