Plato pummelled by opposition

New mayor met with criticism while asking for support in delivering services to everyone

MAYOR Dan Plato is weak and supported by councillors who are merely singing for their supper.

That’s how opposition parties labelled Plato’s election as mayor of the City of Cape Town.

Plato was officially installed as mayor during a heated council meeting yesterday. He won with 146 votes, mostly from DA councillors.

The ANC’s Xolani Sotashe, who was also nominated as a candidate, got 53 votes, while the ACDP’s candidate, Grant Haskin, got three votes only. Voting was done by secret ballot. “I will not be able to do it alone, and will need the support of everyone who shares this City’s vision, and let me repeat that vision now: we are focused on delivering quality services to all residents, serving the residents of Cape Town as a well-governed and corruption-free administration,” Plato said in his inaugural speech.

But opposition parties did not mince their words.

EFF councillor Melikhaya Xego said Plato had failed in all his previous positions.

“We now know for sure that you want to build a united council, but Mr Mayor you are now leading a caucus that is deeply divided. Previously, as a mayor, you left Khayelitsha with portable toilets.

“That community still has portable toilets, and you are again the mayor,” he said.

Xego said Plato should continue with former mayoral committee member Brett Herron’s work on social housing.

“Look at the striking MyCiTi bus workers who are outside striking. Why can’t they be insourced. You need to continue with Herron’s work, not the work of councillors who are just here to sing for their supper,” he said.

ANC council leader Xolani Sotashe brought up Plato’s relationship with certain gang members, and raised the controversial water issue.

“He has disguised talks with gangsters in the name of peace talks. There are victims of the disaster created with the City’s water. Our people are paying exorbitant money on their water bills. But really it is easy to be in your shoes because you were never elected, you were placed in this position,” he said.

Cope councillor Farouk Cassiem said traffic congestion needed attention. “Cape Town is the most traffic-congested city in South Africa. Not tackling this problem with vigour will contribute to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, frayed tempers and economic constraints,” he said.

The president of the Cape Chamber of Commerce, Janine Myburgh, welcomed Plato’s appointment.

Plato responded to opposition parties, saying that he understood that they needed to interject and attend to several matters.

ONE of Cape Town mayor Dan Plato’s first tasks will be to recruit more metro police officers for gang-ravaged areas.

Plato was officially installed as the city’s mayor during a special council meeting yesterday, where he won with 146 votes – mostly from members of the DA.

“They cannot replace the role of the police, but I will make sure that the city does what it can and plays its role when it comes to making our communities safer,” Plato said.

He said the deployment of a focused anti-gang unit was welcome, but pointed out that there were far fewer officers for the city compared to the rest of the country.

“Now that we have the specialised gang unit, I want to see it become a permanent function of the police in this province and in this city. I will be watching closely and if that gang unit is removed I will be the first to call for its return. With regard to the low levels of policing in this city, we cannot allow a situation where 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,” he said.

“In some communities, such as 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,” Plato said.

He said the need for housing closer to the city centre would also be one of his focal points.

“Many of our residents need adequate housing but the rapid urbanisation experienced in Cape Town is made even more challenging due to the legacy of apartheid spatial design.

“Our integrated development plan is clear – the city’s municipal spatial development framework must address the fragmented and inefficient regional and metropolitan spatial form that has resulted from apartheid. Our residents need housing where job opportunities are available,” he said.

“We need to use every cent of our available housing budget, and we need to make sure that the right processes are followed from the beginning so that we can avoid unnecessary delays.”

Plato said the tourism sector, worth about R24 billion, was of great importance to the City.

“Tourism continues to be a major employer, with more than 217 000 jobs created in the Western Cape, many in Cape Town.”