/ 13 May 2009

DA’s Plato replaces Zille as Cape Town mayor

Democratic Alliance councillor Dan Plato was on Wednesday elected Mayor of Cape Town in place of Helen Zille.

Plato (48) won almost double the number of votes of the African National Congress (ANC) candidate for the post, Belinda Landingwe.

In an acceptance speech, he paid tribute to Zille, who was sworn in as Premier of the Western Cape last week.

”As the singer Tina Turner would say, you are simply the best,” he said.

Plato said he was under no illusions about the challenges that lay ahead and he understood how high the stakes were.

Over the past seven years, the city had seen increasing service delivery by communities.

”We know that citizens have been waiting for too long, for too many promises, made by careless leaders.

”I am not here to make big promises, I can’t keep.

”I intend to be honest about what we can and cannot do.”

Plato said it was daunting to fill Zille’s ”big shoes”, but he was fortunate to have inherited the excellent team her multi-party government had built over the past three years.

His number one priority would be to make the city government one that promoted job creation through regional economic growth. — Sapa