Johannesburg - The major mayoral showdown in Joburg got under way with the official nominations of Funzela Ngobeni (DA), Geoff Makhubo (ANC) and Musa Novela (EFF) vying to succeed Herman Mashaba.
On Thursday, the list of nominees finally became clear after the ANC also threw its hat in the ring on the day of the vote.
Mashaba resigned in October after accusing his then political home, the DA, of, among a slew of other things, hindering his progress as head of South Africa's economic hub.
First, there are 270 seats in Council, broken down thus: the ANC with 121; the DA with 103; the EFF with 30; the IFP with five; and the AIC with four.
The ANC, which actually has an elected 122 seats, will have one less vote in this council sitting following the recent death of Cllr David Monamodi.
The PA, FF+, COPE, UDM, Al Jama-ah and ACDP all have one seat each.
ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule finally announced his party's preferred candidate for Joburg after much wrangling among the organisation's leadership.
Even though Geoff Makhubo is the party's regional chairperson and caucus leader, the ANC had still not committed on him as its preferred candidate to succeed Mashaba.
But Magashule said the ANC had full confidence in Makhubo.
"We are going to nominate Comrade Geoff as mayor, and we hope everything goes well," Magashule said.
The ANC also announced that it would Nonceba Molwele to unseat Vasco Da Gama as the speaker of council.