Ian Neilson

Ian Douglas Neilson is the Executive Deputy Mayor of the City of Cape Town, South Africa. He is also the Mayoral Committee member for Finance.

He is a civil engineer and practised as a consulting engineer in the field of water engineering for 20 years, before entering full time politics.

In 2001, when he held the post of Executive Councillor for Safety & Health, he was responsible for the establishment of the Cape Town City Police Service.

Early life

Ian was born in Boksburg, South Africa. He matriculated from Boksburg High School in 1971. He obtained a B.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Cape Town in 1975 and a M.Sc. degree in Engineering in 1984.

Professional career

He worked across South Africa on various engineering projects. Key water supply projects that he worked on were a detailed basin study of the Luvuvhu River Basin (a tributary of the Limpopo River) and the Orange-Vaal Rivers Weir project (an envisaged alternative to the Lesotho Highlands Water Supply System). He also worked on a number of flood and storm water projects, most notable of which was the design of the canal system at Century City, Cape Town. It the latter part of his career he established himself as an expert in pipeline design and pipe network planning.