Oliver became a part time city councillor in the Cape Town municipality during 1976 and was elected deputy mayor in 1987.
Five days after his inauguration as mayor, Oliver along with religious leaders such as Desmond Tutu, Frank Chikane, Farid Esack and Allan Boesak, led a peace march in Cape Town in defiance of the State of Emergency which banned political protests and apartheid laws which enforced racial segregation.
The second was welcoming Nelson Mandela to the Cape Town City Hall to address the South African nation and the world on 11 February 1990, the day of his release from prison.
He left Captour in 1998 and was offered a position to organise an international conference for the Parliament of World Religions, which took place in 1999.
He studied in England and at the University of South Africa and was officially recognized as a minister in 2002 by the British General Assembly.