South Africa's first woman deputy president sworn in

South Africa's first woman deputy president was sworn in Thursday, drawing applause from Cabinet members.

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka also drew an embrace from President Thabo Mbeki after she took the oath of office at a ceremony in Cape Town.

The anti-apartheid activist, who has won support from business and trade unions, fills a post left vacant when Mbeki fired his former deputy Jacob Zuma last week over a bribery scandal.

Zuma, whose financial adviser Schabir Shaik was convicted of fraud and corruption earlier this month, now faces a trial of his own.

Mlambo-Ngcuka, 49, is among a number of governing African National Congress members now seen as possible successors to Mbeki when he steps down at the end of his second term in 2009.

As minister of mineral and energy affairs, she won praise for her efforts to increase black ownership in the white-dominated mining sector.

She also has a reputation of being one of the government's hardest workers.

"We believe that the president is rewarding competence and delivery, but he is also rewarding inventiveness and innovation," said Bheki Sibiya, the chief executive of Business Unity South Africa, an organization representing both black and white businesses.

Mlambo-Ngcuka, a former school teacher, went to Geneva, Switzerland in the 1980s to work for the Young Women's Christian Association.

When she returned to Cape Town in 1987, she took a leading role in a number of anti-apartheid and development groups, including The Ecumenical Action Group.

Mlambo-Ngcuka was elected to Parliament for the governing African National Congress in 1994 and joined Cabinet two years later as deputy trade and industry minister.

In 1999, she was promoted to minister of mineral and energy affairs, where she oversaw the drafting of a mining charter to give black South Africans a share of the industry.

Cape Town Mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo describes Mlambo-Ngcuka as "very, very humble ... very dedicated."

"I think it is good for South Africa to have a woman in such a high position, but even more so I think it is good for her as the kind of woman who doesn't lose touch with those on the ground," she said.