Jacob Zuma, a one time close ally of President Thabo Mbeki now turned rival, was on Tuesday elected chairman of South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party.
Mr Zuma who fell from being South Africa's Vice President underwent a criminal trial in court over alleged corruption in a multi-million arms deal. He also went to jail in another court process over alleged rape.
He claimed the charges were politically motivated, arguing that at that time he had gained ground as a potential successor to Mr Mbeki who leaves power in 2009 when his two five-year term expires. However he has overcome all this to bounce back as ANC's flag bearer.
For Uganda and the rest of Africa, what lessons are there in South Africa's ANC party leadership election? First, President Mbeki and Mr Zuma belong to the same political party. Their disagreements, apart from attracting some heckling at the start of the conference that elected Zuma on Tuesday, were largely graceful, no personal attacks or insults.
Secondly, it might be argued that as the sitting President, Mbeki could have tried, if he wished, to manipulate the legal process to prevent Zuma from standing against him. But he chose not to.
In a contest that has kept the world keenly watching, Mr Mbeki and Mr Zuma sat together during the two-day conference, chatted freely. Most importantly Mbeki was gracefully extending his hand to congratulate the winner. Reporting for the BBC, Mark Dolyes said the gesture was interpreted as a signal to their supporters to heal the rifts arising from this contest.
Without doubt the people of South Africa have gone through a much more turbulent history than most, if not all, countries in Africa including Uganda. But looking at the political maturity exhibited during and after the ANC elections, one may be tempted to think South Africa is 100-year old democracy. Of the 3,834 voting delegates, Mr Zuma received 2,329 compared to Mr Mbeki's 1,505.
Mbeki accepted this without much of a fuss. But all this came about as a result of a free and fair election. Unlike many African presidents, Mbeki did not use his incumbency to disadvantage Zuma in the electoral race or threaten to sabotage him as the new ANC leader.
In Uganda, President Museveni warned only recently that had he lost the 1996 elections he would have gone back to the bush to fight his would-be successor. Let's emulate ANC. It has great lessons for us.
