Cape Town – Newly elected Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato emphasised on Tuesday that the DA would continue to prioritise those residents who are most in need.
Plato was delivering his inaugural speech during a special council sitting after a unanimous motion of confidence from the DA’s provincial council. He received 146 votes out of 208 in the council.
The other nominees were Xolani Sotashe from the ANC and the ACDP's Grant Haskins, who obtained 53 and three votes respectively. Six ballots were spoilt, with eight apologies.
However, former mayoral committee member for transport and urban development Brett Herron, who left his seat in council last week and also quit the DA, wasn't overly impressed with Plato's plans, especially his intention to undo the legacy of his predecessor, Patricia de Lille, saying on Twitter: "I wish #DanPlato well.
"He thinks @PatriciaDeLille legacy needs undoing? He & @Our_DA forget the mess he left behind for her to fix in 2011.
"Toilets with no walls in Khayelitsha? I went there & took these pics Jan 2010. Will never forget the lack of humanity & indignity of this."
Congratulations to #DanPlato, the new Mayor of the City of Cape Town.
"This is my focus – to make progress possible together. And to put the people of Cape Town first." pic.twitter.com/UVbWYRrg2G
— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) November 6, 2018
Plato, who served as mayor previously between 2009 and 2011, has plans to review the City's Organisational Development and Transformational Plan (ODTP), primarily doing away with the four regions the peninsula had been divided in, each with its own mini-mayor.
“I have said it from the start. There are several issues with the ODTP and it needs to be reviewed. This is what I have told the caucus and it was agreed on. There are aspects of the ODTP that work, but others simply don’t. The ones that don’t work will be tweaked,” Plato said.
Former MEC for community safety Plato also assured Capetonians that crime would remain one of his priorities. Plato wants the specialised gang unit to become a permanent function of the police in the province and in the city.
I wish #DanPlato well. He thinks @PatriciaDeLille legacy needs undoing? He & @Our_DA forget the mess he left behind for her to fix in 2011. Toilets with no walls in Khayelitsha? I went there & took these pics Jan 2010. Will never forget the lack of humanity & indignity of this. pic.twitter.com/ZLVg0pjiy9
— Brett Herron (@brettherron) November 6, 2018
“In the rest of the country there is one police officer for every 369 people, but in Cape Town there is only one police officer for every 560 people and, in some communities like Nyanga, this number jumps to one police officer for every 628 residents.
"If the national government does not urgently address this, we will take the legal route to force them to give our communities more police officers because we are done asking nicely,” said Plato.
ANC Cape Metro leader Xolani Sotashe told the Cape Times the lengths to which the DA had gone to get rid of De Lille had shown the party for what it really was.
“Today the DA is giving us Dan Plato, a man who has never won any elections, always govern without a mandate, with the worst record in his previous portfolio, and they expect the people of this City to accept this,” he said.
Plato also said his administration would work hard at facilitating spatial transformation and improving basic service delivery to informal settlements.
But he acknowledged that the rapid urbanisation experienced in Cape Town is made even more challenging due to the legacy of apartheid spatial design.