Dan Plato

Who is Dan Plato?

Daniel "Dan" Plato is the Minister for Community Safety in the Western Cape and the former Executive Mayor of Cape Town, South Africa. and has been involved in political activities since high school, particularly in Cape Town's northern suburbs.

As a community organiser, he played a major role in rallying people against the apartheid regime. In the mid-1980s, he worked in the Emergency Services Unit of the former Bellville Municipality, and he became the Cape Town Chairperson of the South African National Tuberculosis Association in the mid-1990s.

In 1996, Plato became a councillor and full-time politician. He served two terms as Chairperson of the City of Cape Town's Economic Development, Tourism and Property Management Portfolio Committee and, from 2006 to 2009, held the Housing Portfolio in the Mayoral Committee. During this period, as Deputy Chairperson of the DA Metro Region and DA Caucus in the City of Cape Town, he also served as Acting Executive Mayor at various intervals. Shortly before being elected Executive Mayor in May 2009, Plato had taken over as the Mayoral Committee Member responsible for Service Delivery and Economic Development.