Dan Plato

Daniel "Dan" Plato (born 5 October 1960^[1]) is the Minister for Community Safety in the Western Cape and the former Executive Mayor of Cape Town, South Africa.^[2] 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 (Tygerberg Administration), 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.

As a dedicated ward councillor serving Belhar, Uitsig and Ravenmead, Plato was and continues to be committed to social upliftment and poverty alleviation. During his term as mayor, he introduced many job creation projects and made this one of the focus points of his mayoral agenda. In addition to his political work, Plato has served on the boards of a wide variety of organisations, including the Cape Film Commission, Cape Tourism, the University of the Western Cape and the Business Opportunities Network, and has been a member of various community-based trusts and has done campaign work for HIV/AIDS, women's rights and youth development.^[3]

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