African National Congress supporters were dancing and singing outside South Africa's parliament after President Jacob Zuma survived his eighth no-confidence vote.
Most importantly, he survived the first by secret ballot.
The motion, brought by the opposition, needed to secure 201 of the 400 votes in parliament to succeed.
But as National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete announced, it was narrowly defeated.
"The total votes, 384. The yes, 177. Order! Order! The no, 198."
Addressing a gathering outside parliament, Jacob Zuma thanked his supporters.
He says his opponents did not have the support of the majority in South Africa.
"Now they believed they could use technicalities in parliament to take over the majority from the ANC. It's impossible. They can't do it. We represent the majority in the public. No matter how many people they can collect and say, 'This is the majority,' it's not."
ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu insists the party remains united.
"We are happy that it has now happened and, as we had promised our people of our country, that we would not sell out on our revolution. This motion of removing our government and our president has been defeated. This is what we are saying to the people of South Africa, that we will not, with our eyes open, vote as ANC members of parliament with the opposition to remove our government."
But some of the votes against Mr Zuma were from within his ANC.
Criticism of him has grown amid numerous corruption scandals.
Last year, a court found him guilty of violating the constitution after he refused to repay taxpayers' money used to refurbish his private rural house.
The President has been accused of close business dealings with the business empire of the Gupta family, an Indian-born South African business family with vast interests.
Mr Zuma is alleged to have granted them influence over government appointments, contracts and state-owned businesses.
He is also fighting a court order which could reinstate almost 800 corruption charges against him over a multi-billion-dollar arms deal in the 1990s.
Mr Zuma is seen as favouring his ex-wife, former African Union chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, to succeed him, ahead of deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.
However, many do not believe Mr Zuma will end up serving out his time until elections in 2019.
The leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance party, Mmusi Maimane, says it is time for him to go now.
"Jacob Zuma must do the right thing and resign, because he clearly has lost the mandate of his party. People today voted to say Jacob Zuma must go. What we've got to do now is focus on building an economy for all South Africans. The issue today for all of us is that South Africa must look at this result as a positive result, as a moment in our nation where, across parties, the right thing, people felt they must vote for change. And even though Jacob Zuma may have just survived this motion, the journey towards 2019 has just begun."
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