ABOUT ME 

Hi, I am Brett Herron and I am putting my hand up to serve as the Mayor of our great City of Cape Town. Here is a little about me.

 

I am lawyer by profession. I graduated with a B.A and postgraduate LL.B degree from the University of Natal (now University of KwaZulu-Natal) and was admitted as an attorney in 1994.

From 2018 to 2020 I attended the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where I completed an MSc in Cities degree. I was awarded a Bloomberg Scholarship for Public Service.

I served in executive city office, in Cape Town for almost a decade. In 2010 I was appointed as the Mayco Member for Community Services.

In 2011 I was re-elected to the Council and was appointed the Mayoral Committee Member for Transport. Between 2011 and 2016 I led the implementation of what was at one point regarded as Africa’s most successful Bus Rapid Transit system, the MyCiTi Bus.

Following the August 2016 local government elections I was re-elected to the Council and appointed as the Mayco Member responsible for Transport & Urban Development. In the reconfigured government I was responsible for Transport, Spatial Planning and Housing.

I championed a new approach to urban development which included a new spatial form, spatial integration and what we called a “180-degree about-turn on housing delivery”.

I resigned from the DA (Democratic Alliance), my position on Mayco and from Council after the DA blocked several affordable housing projects I had initiated because the projects were on well-located public land.

In May 2019 I was elected a Member of Provincial Parliament in the Western Cape representing the fledgling GOOD party. I serve as a member of the following standing committees:

• Human Settlements (Housing)

• Transport and Public Works

• Environment and Development Planning.

I am a passionate champion of integrated affordable housing, efficient and sustainable urban forms, and urban connectivity.

 

Over the decade in government I have gained substantial experience in governing a rapidly urbanising city in the developing world. I am also an entrepreneur. Since 2002 I have owned of an accredited legal skills training business which provides paralegal and related training at campuses in Cape Town, Pretoria, Randburg and Durban.
 

I am also a founding partner in ComplexCity, a urban consultancy established in 2020, with three other graduates of the MSc in Cities degree programme.
Qualifications:

• B.A. (University of Natal)

• LL.B (University of Natal)

• MSc in Cities (London School of Economics)

• Admitted Attorney of the High Court of South Africa
  
   

[Social Media: Twitter - @brettherron / Facebook - @BrettHerronPolitics]