The City of Cape Town plans to invest more in infrastructure than all three Gauteng metros combined over the next three years.
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says the City’s R29.7 billion budget is 80% larger than Johannesburg’s (R22 billion) and 98% larger than eThekwini (R20 billion).
Also read: Cape Town tables record infrastructure spend in draft budget
These figures are based on an analysis of the 2024/25 draft budgets tabled by each metro, and the budgets will be spent over the upcoming three-year Medium-Term Revenue Expenditure Framework (MTREF).
‘We expect to create around 130 000 jobs over three years via infrastructure investments linked to our new Building for Jobs Budget,’ he said in a statement.
‘These new jobs are purely based on construction alone and are just a small part of the economic benefits ahead for Cape Town as we prepare to overtake Johannesburg as South Africa’s most populous city.’
‘Since the start of this term of office in November 2021, Cape Town has added 363 000 new jobs, according to StatsSA. Our economy is robust, growing fast and creating jobs. Factories are hiring, call centres are hiring, entrepreneurs are taking the plunge, and many more people are moving their lives and businesses to Cape Town.’
Hill-Lewis adds that lower-income households and areas are set to benefit from around 75% (R9 billion) of the City’s infrastructure spending throughout 2024/25.
‘For many people in Cape Town – and throughout South Africa – hope comes from living in more dignified conditions. Dignified housing, dignified sanitation services, dignified neighbourhoods, streets and public spaces.’
‘So we are racing to upgrade bulk sewer lines and wastewater treatment works, to quadruple the [number] of sewer pipes we replace, to expand our world-class MyCiti bus service to new routes, to put more Capetonians families into affordable housing, and to deploy even more law enforcement officers to high crime areas,’ he says.
These are South Africa’s budgets for the MTREF (2024/25 in brackets):
- Cape Town: R39/7 billion (R12.1 billion)
- Johannesburg: R22 billion (R7.2 billion)
- eThekwini: R20 billion (7.2 billlion)
- Ekurhuleni: R9 billion (R2.9 billion)
- Tshwane: R7.3 billion (R2.3 billion)
- Nelson Mandela Bay: R5 billion (R1.6 billion)
- Mangaung: R4 billion (R1.3 billion)
- Buffalo City: R3.8 billion (R1.2 billion)
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Picture: @Tim Johnson / Unsplash