Dan Plato will be the next mayor of Cape Town, while DA leader Mmusi Maimane has turned down a shot at the Western Cape’s top job, the Democratic Alliance (DA) announced Tuesday.
Plato, who is currently the Community Safety MEC, will replace Patricia de Lille.
Plato, 57, was previously mayor for two years from May 2009, when Helen Zille stepped down as mayor to become the DA’s leader in the province.
De Lille steps down as mayor at the end of October, after a deal with the DA leadership designed to end a year of political feuding between her and the party.
Plato’s opposition for the mayoral chain included Brett Herron, Ian Neilson, Sharna Fernandez, Sumaya Taliep, and Gauteng politician Heinrich Volmink.
“The panel recommended that Dan Plato be the DA’s Mayor of Cape Town, and FedEx has... ratified that decision,” said DA spokesman Solly Malatsi Tuesday.
“As the DA, we are confident that Mr Plato will continue the progress we are making in the City of Cape Town.”
Plato is a former anti-apartheid activist who became a full time politician in 1996.
He will have the twin tasks of uniting a city council driven apart under De Lille and shoring up the DA’s support in Cape Town ahead of national elections next year.
But the ANC in the Western Cape has rejected Plato for mayor, saying that he had failed in his current position as community safety MEC.
ANC provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs said: “Plato is out of his depth in having to manage a complex position such as the Mayor of the City of Cape Town.
“Even within the DA, most of its senior leadership seem quite angered, shocked and surprised by this less than mediocre appointment.”
He accused the DA of only appointing Plato to win coloured votes in the 2019 general elections.
“The only conclusion we can draw from this announcement is that the DA, knowing how angry its citizens are with the handling of Mayor De Lille, have realised that they cannot appoint a white Mayor as they are worried that they may lose more coloured support,” said Jacobs.
Meanwhile, Malatsi said Maimane turned down a request for him to stand as the party’s premier candidate, Western Cape.
DECLINE: Maimane. Photo: ANA, PHANDO_JIKELO/ INLSA
“This was a request that required consideration and consultation within the party, which made the initial request to him,” he said.
According to a well-placed source in the party, Alan Winde, the minister of economic opportunities, has beaten Western Cape DA leader Bonginkosi Madikizela to the premiership.
However, the FedEx did not confirm this by last night.