Mayor of Cape Town

The mayor of Cape Town is the head of the local government of Cape Town, South Africa; currently that government takes the form of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality.

Mayor of Cape Town
Incumbent Geordin Hill-Lewis since 18 November 2021
Style	The Honourable
Appointer	Cape Town City Council
Term length	Five years; renewable once consecutively
Inaugural holder	Michiel van Breda
Formation	1840
Website	Official Website

The mayoral position was established on 7 December 2000.

In the past, the position of mayor has varied between that of an executive mayor actively governing the city and that of a figurehead mayor with a mostly ceremonial role. The current mayor is Geordin Hill-Lewis of the Democratic Alliance (DA).

Current office

This is a list of mayors of Cape Town in South Africa:

City of Cape Town (December 2000–present)

Name and Image		Term of office		Political party
	Peter Marais	December 2000	November 2001	Democratic Alliance
	Gerald Morkel	December 2001	October 2002	Democratic Alliance
	Nomaindia Mfeketo	October 2002	March 2006	African National Congress
	Helen Zille	March 2006	April 2009	Democratic Alliance
	Grant Haskin (acting)	April 2009	May 2009	African Christian Democratic Party
	Dan Plato	May 2009	May 2011	Democratic Alliance
	Patricia de Lille	June 2011	October 2018	Democratic Alliance
	Ian Neilson (acting)	May 2018 October 2018	May 2018 November 2018	Democratic Alliance
	Dan Plato	November 2018	October 2021	Democratic Alliance
	Geordin Hill-Lewis	November 2021	Incumbent	Democratic Alliance

Historic offices

Metropolitan Local Councils (June 1996–December 2000)

Cape Metropolitan Council (CMC)

• Attie Adriaanse (2000)^[1] (NNP)
• Rev William Bantom (1996 - 2000) ^[2] (NNP)

City of Cape Town Municipality (Central Substructure)

• Nomaindia Mfeketo (1998 - 2000) (ANC)
• Theresa Solomon^[3][4] (1996 - 1998) (ANC)

City of Tygerberg Municipality (Tygerberg Substructure)

• Clifford Sitonga (1999 - 2000) (ANC)
• Lukas Olivier (1996 - 1999) (NNP)

South Peninsula Municipality (Southern Substructure)

• John Oswald "OJ" Jacobs (1996 - 2000) (NNP)

Helderberg Municipality (Helderberg Substructure)

• James Matthews (1996 - 2000) (NNP)

Oostenberg Municipality (Eastern Substructure)

• Danny De La Cruz (1996 - 2000) (NNP)

Blaauwberg Municipality (Northern Substructure)

• Desmond Stoffberg (1999 - 2000) (NNP)
• Heather Maneveld (1997 - 1999) (NNP)
• Algene Ross (1996 - 1997) (NNP)

City of Cape Town Transitional Council (February 1995–June 1996)

• Rev William Bantom (1995 - 1996) (NP)

Mayors prior to nonracial dispensation

Cape Colony (1840-1910)

Name	Term of office		Annotation
Michiel van Breda	1840	1844	First Chairman of the Cape Town Municipality.[5]
J.J.L. Smuts	1844	1848
Hercules Jarvis	1848	1860
Dirk Gysbert van Breda	1860	1860	First Term
Gilles J. de Korte	1860	1862	First Term
W. Herman	1862	1863
Thomas Watson	1863	1863
Joseph Barry	1863	1865
Dirk Gysbert van Breda	1865	1866	Second Term
Gilles J. De Korte	1866	1871	Second term. Title changed from "chairman" to "mayor" in 1867.
Philip Stigant	1871	1872	First Term
Gilles J. de Korte	1872	1874	Third term
Philip Stigant	1874	1875	Second term
P.U. Leibbrandt	1875	1876
Charles Lewis	1876	1877	First term
John Philip	1877	1878
Jan Christoffel Hofmeyr	1878	1879
Petrus Kotzé	1879	1881
William Fleming	1881	1883
Charles Lewis	1883	1884	Second term
Philip Stigant	1884	1885	Third term
Thomas Inglesby	1885	1886	Former honorary Colonel of the Cape Field Regiment[6]
John Woodhead	1886	1887	First term
Thomas O'Reilly	1887	1888	First Term
John Woodhead	1888	1889	Second Term
David Christiaan de Waal	1880	1890
David Graaff	1890	1892	Later Minister of Public Works and Finance.[7]
Johan Mocke	1892	1893
John Woodhead	1893	1894	Third term
George Smart	1894	1895
James Attwell	1895	1896
John Woodhead	1896	1897	Fourth term
Herman Boalch	1897	1898	Died in office
Thomas Ball	1898	1900
Thomas O'Reilly	1900	1901	Second term
William Thorne	1901	1904
Hyman Liberman	1904	1907
William Duncan Baxter[8]	1907	1908
Frank Smith	1908	1912

Union of South Africa (1910-1961)

Name	Term of office		Annotation
Frank Smith	1908	1912
Harry Hands[9]	1912	1913	First term
John Parker	1913	1915	First Mayor of "Greater" Cape Town after surrounding municipalities had been incorporated into the city.
Harry Hands	1915	1918	Second term
William J. Thorne	1918	1920
William Gardener	1920	1922
Ryno J. Verster	1922	1925
William Fish	1925	1927
Andrew Reid	1927	1929
Alfred Lewis	1929	1931
Harry Stephan	1931	1933
Louis Gradner	1933	1935
James Low	1935	1937
W.C. Foster	1937	1939
Wilfred Brinton	1939	1941
Walter James	1941	1943
Ernest Nyman	1943	1945
Abe Bloomberg	1945	1947
Herbert Gearing	1947	1949
Charles Booth	1949	1951
Fritz Sonnenberg	1951	1953
Arthur Keen	1953	1955
Pieter Wolmarans	1955	1957
John Orville Billingham	1957	1959
Joyce Newton-Thompson	1959	1961	First female mayor

Republic of South Africa (1961-1995)

Name	Term of office
Alfred Honikman	1961	1963
William Peters	1963	1965
Walter Gradner	1965	1967
Gerald Ferry	1967	1969
Jan Dommisse	1969	1971
Richard Friedlander	1971	1973
David Bloomberg	1973	1975
John Tyers	1975	1977
Edward Mauerberger	1977	1979
Louis Kreiner	1979	1981
M.J. Van Zyl	1981	1983
Sol Kreiner	1983	1985
Leon Markovitz	1985	1987
Peter Muller	1987	1989
Gordon Oliver[10][11]	1989	1991
Frank Van der Velde[4]	1991	1993
Clive Keegan[12]	1993	1993
Patricia Sulcas Kreiner	1993	1995

See also

• Timeline of Cape Town