Polokwane — Charlayne Hunter-Gault describes the scene for allAfrica readers from the floor of the ANC's national conference. To comment, click on the box at top right [free sign-up]. 

It's a Zuma wipe out.

Not only does he take the top spot by a huge margin (2329 votes to Thabo Mbeki's  1505), but his entire slate comes in by similarly huge margins.

I've yet to do the math, but if the Zuma people obtain a parliamentary majority, they could call for a vote of no confidence in the President of the country and ask him to step down. That seems far-fetched to me, not least because the new deputy president of the party, Kgalema Motlanthe at an earlier press conference insisted that there would be no micromanaging of government from Luthuli House (ANC headquarters) and that there would be no government gridlock with two centers of power - a big worry prior to the election.

There is ebullient bedlam in the room, as delegates are constantly breaking  out in songs about Msholozi [Zuma's clan name] and the ANC Freedom Charter. Whistling, foot-stomping, drum-beating... vuvuzela blowing....

If there are any discouraging words, I haven't heard them. Whatever the Mbeki forces are feeling, they have so far kept it to themselves, accepting the results quietly, it seems.

I'm sitting this time in a chair and not on the floor in front of the dais, with a phalanx of security men determined to keep us all in check.

Before the results were read aloud, all NEC and party officials were asked to leave the stage, now, in retrospect, sweeping out the old and making ready for the clean sweep.

The announcement of the vote for Thabo Mbeki first gave an early indication that the winner would be Zuma and the reaction started to build so that by the time Zuma's name was called, the hall had erupted in uproarious singing and clapping and shouting.

Zuma strode almost casually onto the stage, calmly taking his seat, with barely a smile - but a calm, satisfied look on his face. As the subsequent names were read out to huge applause in the hall, a man behind me kept shouting "Hooray for the People's Cabinet."

The nominations of NEC members from the floor is underway now, but history has already been made and I'm going to go talk to the people about their cabinet.