The South African parliament has re-elected Cyril Ramaphosa as the country's president, following a historic coalition agreement between the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and opposition parties.

The new government of national unity combines Ramaphosa's ANC, the center-right Democratic Alliance (DA) and smaller parties.

In his victory speech, Ramaphosa welcomed the new coalition and said voters expected the leaders to "act and work together for the good of all in our country".

The agreement was reached on a day of high political drama, when the National Assembly met late into the night to vote on the confirmation of who would hold power in the new administration.

The agreement was reached after weeks of speculation about who the ANC would partner with, after it lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in 30 years in last month's elections.

The ANC won 40% of the votes, while the DA came second with 22%.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula called the coalition agreement a "remarkable step".
It means that Ramaphosa - who replaced Jacob Zuma as president and leader of the ANC after a bitter power struggle in 2018 - was able to hold on to power.

The next step is for Ramaphosa to allocate cabinet posts, which will include DA members.