Kgalema Motlanthe vowed Thursday to maintain pro-growth policies in South Africa as he became the continental powerhouse's third post-apartheid president, after the dramatic ouster of Thabo Mbeki by his own party.
   
Motlanthe quickly sought to reassure the nation and the world that he would be a steady hand, after Mbeki's resignation last weekend plunged the country into its worst political crisis since the end of apartheid in 1994.
   
The former union organiser and anti-apartheid activist, who won 269 of the 360 votes cast in a secret ballot in parliament, vowed to maintain economic policies that have brought sustained growth in Africa's largest economy.
   
"We will not allow that the work of government be interrupted," the 59-year-old said in his first speech to parliament, shortly after taking his oath of office.
   
"We will not allow the stability of our democratic order to be compromised. And we will not allow the confidence that our people have in the ability of the state to respond to their needs to be undermined," he added.
   
In a key move aimed at reassuring the business world, Motlanthe decided to maintain respected Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, seen by investors as crucial to the nation's economic growth.
   
Business Leadership South Africa -- a group of the country's top listed companies, foreign investors and public enterprises -- welcomed the election, saying it was "confident that domestic and international investors should not be concerned about the direction and stability of the country."
   
But Motlanthe is expected to have a short-lived presidency, guiding the country to elections in April, when African National Congress party leader -- and Mbeki's longtime rival -- Jacob Zuma is tipped to take power.
   
The ruling ANC has taken pains to offer assurances that Motlanthe's election will not provoke any major changes in government, and his cabinet line-up maintained other key figures in critical posts.
   
The new president also kept the ministers for foreign affairs, trade and industry and education in their posts.
   
The controversial health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang -- ridiculed for championing beetroots to fight AIDS -- was moved to the post of minister in the presidency.
   
Motlanthe also named a new minister for safety and security, saying he would seek to clamp down on rampant crime in a country where 50 people are killed every day.
   
In his speech to parliament, Motlanthe notably vowed to step up efforts to fight poverty, another major concern with 43 percent of the population living on less than two dollars a day.
   
"We will intensify the all-round effort to accelerate the rate of growth and job creation, and ensure that the benefits of growth are equally shared by all our people," he said.
   
"We remain on course to halve unemployment and poverty by 2014. We remain determined to stamp out crime, violence and abuse, whomever it affects and wherever it manifests itself."
   
But much of Motlanthe's job will require him to tap into his reputation as a political peacemaker to build bridges between supporters of Zuma and Mbeki before next year's elections.
   
Mbeki bowed to the party's call to resign from the presidency following a damning court ruling that hinted he was instrumental in a decision to prosecute Zuma, whom he fired as the country's deputy president in 2005.
   
He has denied the allegations and is appealing that aspect of the ruling in a bid to clear his name from the insinuation of judicial meddling.
   
The sudden end to Mbeki's nine-year administration leaves an embarrassing stain on the legacy of the man who succeeded anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.
   
The outgoing president had been increasingly at loggerheads with his party, which split into two camps behind him and Zuma when he made his failed bid to run for a third term as party president at a crunch ANC conference last year.