In his first major appearance since he was sworn in as South Africa's President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, yesterday announced his cabinet and confounded earlier predictions that he would appoint the Inkatha Freedom Party leader, Mr Mangosuthu Buthelezi, as deputy president.
Instead he appointed Mr Jacob Zuma to the post, thereby filling it with his deputy in the ruling African National Congress who, like Chief Buthelezi, is a Zulu.
In a move which was widely approved the important education portfolio went to the former Irish Anti-Apartheid chairman, Mr Kader Asmal. His skills as an administrator in the Ministry of Water Affairs won applause from opposition parties as well as his ANC colleagues.
In perhaps the biggest surprise President Mbeki selected Mr Nkosazana Zuma, former wife of the new Deputy President and immediate past minister of health, for the high profile foreign affairs portfolio.
He thus contradicted persistent speculation that the post would go to Mr Sydney Mufamadi, who served as minister of safety and security under the former president, Mr Nelson Mandela.
Dr Zuma was a controversial minister of health. Her zealous crusade against smoking apart, she alienated the pharmaceutical industry by opening the doors to the importation of cheaper and, her critics insist, unsafe drugs.
Mr Mufamadi, who failed to stem the rising tide of crime and whose head was demanded during his tenure as minister of safety and security, was made Minister of Provincial and Local Government, a position which may enable him to deploy the negotiating skills he displayed last year when he helped to resolve the dispute in the neighbouring Kingdom of Lesotho.
Mr Steve Tshwete, who drew fire from the opposition parties for pressing for racial quotas in national sports teams and who was found by a High Court judge to be a dishonest witness, was appointed to replace Mr Mufamadi as Minister of Safety and Security. In fairness to Mr Tshwete, it should be noted that the High Court finding was itself controversial and that judgment in an appeal against it is pending in the Constitutional Court.
The business community welcomed Mr Mbeki's decision to retain the Finance Minister, Mr Trevor Manuel, and the Trade and Industry Minister, Mr Alec Erwin.
The two men demonstrated their competence by meeting serious challenges during their tenure under Mr Mandela's presidency: the crisis which beset South Africa as an emerging market in Mr Manuel's case and the protracted and difficulties negotiations over trade preferences with the European Union in Mr Erwin's.
Chief Buthelezi, who was re-appointed as Minister of Home Affairs in the renewed governing coalition between the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party or IFP, disqualified himself for the deputy presidency.
In a statement released a few days ago, he confirmed that he had been offered the post, on condition that the IFP agree to the appointment of an ANC premier of KwaZulu-Natal province.
The IFP won the provincial election there, though by the slimmest of margins. Chief Buthelezi was not prepared to pay the price set by the ANC.
Another factor probably weighed heavily with Chief Buthelezi: while the Office of the deputy president exercised real power under President Mandela, the Deputy President will fulfil a largely ceremonial role under President Mbeki, who - acting in terms of a recommendation from a Presidential Commission - has expanded the powers and functions of the president's office at the expense of the deputy presidency.
A significant omission from President Mbeki's new cabinet was that of Ms Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, former wife of Mr Mandela and president of the ANC Women's League.
Ms Madikizela-Mandela worked hard for the ANC during the election campaign and went out of her way to praise Mr Mbeki as a bold and imaginative leader.
The failure of Mr Mbeki to exclude her from the ANC election list - as a convicted kidnapper she appeared to contravene the ANC's own code of conduct - invoked fears in opposition and business circles that she might be rewarded with a cabinet position. These fears were not fulfilled.
A notable feature of Mr Mbeki's cabinet was the exclusion of Mr Derek Hannekom and Dr Pallo Jordan.