CAPE TOWN’s new Executive Mayor, Dan Plato, is a ‘people’s person’ who knows the challenges that face our city well, and intends to do something about them from day one.

“My first priority is to make this a government that promotes job creation, through regional economic growth,” he told a full Council meeting yesterday. His other major tasks, over the next two years, are to “continue increasing our rate of capital investments, and to meet the challenge of the provision of housing.”

Executive Mayor Plato was relaxed as he gave a media conference after his election at Council, confident with his and his team’s commitment to make no promises they can’t keep, but to do the very best they can within the constraints of budget, local government mandates, and the current global economic situation.

As former Mayoral Committee member for Housing and latterly for Service Delivery and Integration, Plato intends to keep these issues high on the agenda.

“Service delivery is a dramatic issue,” he notes. “I would love to see us doing an awful lot more for the poor out there, but the City’s budget is not enough for us to do it on our own. We cannot continue to increase rates and cripple our ratepayers, which is why we need to build partnerships – with provincial and national government, and with the private sector.”

In his and his team’s commitment to service delivery, Plato can expect full support from everyone in the City, including the ANC. In congratulating him on his election, ANC Caucus leader Peter Gabriel said that “the ANC will give you full co-operation in any efforts to alleviate the conditions of the poor.”

In terms of job creation, “our public participation process for the IDP showed that citizens want jobs first and foremost,” said Plato. “But in the end it is not for the City of Cape Town for employ people and to create jobs. We need a stable economy, and we need money to stream into Cape Town. We need to create a platform, an environment, that will lure investors into the city, and enable businesses to thrive.”

Currently, businesses are constrained by poor electricity supply and public transport, acute poverty, crime and municipal red tape, he said.

Asked whether Cape Town could expect to see a different ‘style’ of leadership, Plato noted that while “I am not Helen Zille, I have learned a lot from her. Her style and way brought a great deal of success, and I would be stupid not to build on her success. She is a ‘one and only’, we have worked together very well, and I would love to continue that relationship with her.” Plato looks forward, particularly, to an improved capacity to increase the output of housing, with his predecessor and colleague, who is now Premier of the Western Cape.

Forty eight year old Plato grew up in Ravensmead on the Cape Flats, and has seen “the good, the bad and the ugly of life there.”

“I bring all those experiences with me, and as a result, my door is always open, and I love going out there and dirtying my hands.”

The City of Cape Town wishes him well as he does just that.

Plato beat ANC candidate Belinda Landingwe by 119 votes to 66 at a full Council meeting held on Wednesday May 13, 2009.

Click here to view download the acceptance speech. (PDF)