When a public meeting is held and people are encouraged to ask questions about neighbourhood issues that concern them, it’s fair for those who attend to assume that those questions will be met with comprehensive answers, especially if the person leading the meeting is the mayor.
Not so with mayor Dan Plato’s damp squib of a public meeting last week. If Cape Town were a company, Mr Plato would be the CEO… and like any good boss, he should have his finger on the pulse of his organisation.
Mr Plato’s finger was somewhere at last week’s meeting, but on the city’s pulse it certainly wasn’t.
The mayor hid behind the fact that he has only been in office two months… if that’s how a CEO dealt with questions from shareholders, the company’s share price would plummet.
Does the fact that voting day is around the corner have anything to do with Mr Plato’s sudden desire to reach out to residents?
If his plan was to win votes by pushing home a “don’t worry, I have this” message, then he should have rather stayed home.
It was obvious how residents’ irritation grew throughout the meeting as the mayor’s responses seldom ventured beyond “noted” and “I hear you”. The mayor did promise, however, to visit the beachfront… presumably he will get out there just as soon as he finds it on the map.