South Africa's African National Congress has named its deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe as head of state after Thabo Mbeki announced his resignation.
Mr Motlanthe is to serve as head of state until elections are held in seven months' time.
Mr Mbeki announced in a live television address yesterday that he had tendered his resignation to speaker of parliament Baleka Mbete.
Mr Mbeki came under pressure to leave office after a judge implied he had interfered in a corruption case against his rival and former deputy, Jacob Zuma.
He denied the allegations, but said he was complying with a call by the ANC for him to step down seven months before his second term ends.
ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa said the call for Mbeki to resign was not an act of retribution, but a bid to unite the party behind one leader ahead of polls next year.
Mr Phosa said the party wants the cabinet to remain, underlining investor fears that the departure of experienced, pro-Mbeki ministers could hurt the country.
But supporters of Mr Mbeki may split from the ANC and contest elections as a breakaway party in 2009, South Africa's Sunday Times said yesterday.
The move threatens to shatter the country's post-apartheid political landscape, dominated by the ANC.
A number of ministers have threatened to resign rather than serve in a Zuma-controlled government.
Who is Motlanthe?
Very little is known about Kgalema Motlanthe internationally as he is not known for seeking the limelight. Here are a few facts about South Africa's interim leader:
-Appointed to cabinet in July this year, Mr Motlanthe risked his political reputation by publicly defending Jacob Zuma in the face of corruption allegations after he was sacked by Mbeki as the country's deputy president in 2005.
-He is understood to be favoured by Zuma to become his deputy should Zuma become president. Mr Motlanthe was elected ANC deputy president in December 2007.
- While his exact birth date is known, the left-leaning intellectual is believed to be about 58.
- He is a former student activist, a trade unionist and a former soldier in the ANC's disbanded military wing UmKhonto we Sizwe.
- Mr Motlanthe was detained in 1976 for 11 months for pursuing the aims of the ANC liberation movement. In 1977 he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. He was jailed on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela under the racist apartheid regime.
- In 1992 he was elected secretary-general of the National Union of Mineworkers, bedrock of the trade union federation COSATU.
- In 1997, when politician-businessman Cyril Ramaphosa retired from politics, Mr Motlanthe was elected secretary-general of the ANC.
