Gauteng African National Congress (ANC) chairperson David Makhura has been elected premier of the province during the first sitting of the sixth legislature, beating out the Democratic Alliance's (DA) Solly Msimanga with 38 votes to 32.

Earlier on Wednesday, Zamani Saul, Sefora Ntombela, Job Mokgoro, Alan Winde, Oscar Mabuyane and Sihle Zikalala were all elected as premiers in their respective provinces.

Makhura was nominated by ANC Deputy Chairperson in the province, Panyaza Lesufi. The ANC had scraped through with 50.19% of the votes in the province during the general elections on May 8.

"It is my great honour to nominate a dedicated leader of our movement and a servant of our people," Lesufi told the sitting presided by Judge President Dustin Mlambo.

The Democratic Alliance's (DA) Mike Moriarty in turn nominated its caucus leader, Solly Msimanga for Premier of the province.

Msimanga received 32 out of the total 73 votes that were cast. Two of the ballots were spoilt while one was invalid.

The legislature will proceed with the elections of the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Chairperson as well as Deputy Chairpersons of committees.

Makhura is to be sworn in as Premier at the Emoyeni Conference Centre in Parktown, Johannesburg on Wednesday.

Other provinces

Provincial legislatures around the country sat for the first time on Wednesday for the swearing-in processes of new MPLs, as well as the election of their respective speakers and premiers.

The ANC's Zamani Saul was elected premier in the Northern Cape, while Job Mokgoro and Sefora Ntombela were elected in the North West and Free State provinces respectively.

In the Western Cape, the DA's Alan Winde was elected premier, while Sihle Zikalala was elected in KwaZulu-Natal after standing unopposed.

In the Eastern Cape, ANC provincial chairperson Oscar Mabuyane received the nod for premier. Counting in Gauteng meanwhile was continuing.

Winde was elected shortly after the ANC put forward their own leader in the legislature, Cameron Dugmore, as a nominee for premier.

Winde received 24 votes, while Dugmore received 10. There were six spoiled votes.

In a speech afterwords, Winde struck a reconciliatory tone.

"I welcome Cameron Dugmore, the leader of the opposition, and leaders of other parties here and I also hope that, in this process, it's not only about the legislative process in the House, but that we also talk about those issues that we all saw when we were out campaigning in the last few months."

Elsewhere in the country, Sihle Zikalala was elected KwaZulu-Natal premier after he was nominated unopposed in the provincial legislature.

Zikalala's nomination was accepted and confirmed by KwaZulu-Natal Judge President Achmat Jappie.

Zikalala and other MPLs took their oaths of affirmations in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday.

"Congratulations Mr Sihle Zikalala," the official provincial government Twitter account tweeted on Wednesday.