Plato takes over as mayor, vows to boost policing
Dan Plato officially became mayor of Cape Town after being voted in with 146 out of 208 votes on Tuesday.
ANC council leader Xolani Sotashe received 53 votes.
There were 51 ANC members available to cast their vote in Tuesday’s council sitting.
The ANC caucus sang loudly after the outcome of the vote was announced in Plato’s favour.
The former Western Cape community safety MEC was inaugurated by city speaker Dirk Smit.
He takes over the hot seat from Patricia de Lille‚ who stepped down as mayor last week and quit as a DA member after a stormy relationship with the party.
After receiving the mayoral chain‚ Plato said one of his priorities was to beef up policing.
He promised to focus on recruiting more members into the metro police and to apply pressure on the national government to give Cape Town more SAPS officers.
Plato welcomed the newly formed anti-gang unit and said he would canvass for it to remain active as a permanent part of the police force.
He said Cape Town had too few police officers.
“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 only one for every 560 people – and in some communities, like Nyanga‚ this number jumps to one for every 628 residents‚” he said.
“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.
“We are done asking nicely.” –