Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka scraped into office as South Africa's next Public Protector with four more than the constitutionally required minimum of 240 votes. For many in the House, it would have been a job well done, even if the bruising debate and politicking exposed trench lines.
A DA walkout. An absent EFF, except for one MP, alongside several smaller parties like the United Democratic Movement and Cope. And several other opposition parties missing MPs.
The count of 244 votes for and 12 against is not just a telling reflection of the level of support for an incoming permanently appointed Public Protector - the acting incumbent Kholeka Gcaleka - but also a show of deeply embedded divisions and majoritarianism, South Africa's particular take on democracy.
The governing ANC is not shy to use its numbers to get its way, even outside meetings of its National Executive Committee. This sometimes goes awry.
In June 2022, the ANC proceeded with its choice of anti-apartheid veteran and ex-Presidency director-general, Frank Chikane, as intelligence inspector-general - without the two-thirds support the Constitution required.
That vote bombed, and it was back to the drawing board. Ultimately, Imtiaz Fazel got the intelligence oversight job in September 2022.
And so, for Thursday's vote for the new Public Protector, the ANC knew it had to muster every one of its 230 MPs. That's why, for example, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni had to make it to the parliamentary sitting in Cape Town by 2pm...
