Metro Budgets reveal Cape Town is making SA’s biggest infrastructure investment

17 April 2024

At R39,7bn, Cape Town’s three-year infrastructure budget is 80% larger than the next metro, Joburg (R22bn), and 98% larger than the third biggest, eThekwini (R20bn). 

‘We expect to create around 130 000 jobs over three years via infrastructure investments linked to our new Building for Jobs Budget. 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.

‘Our mission is to make Cape Town work by investing, on an unprecedented scale, in the city’s infrastructure – with projects worth R120bn over ten years. Because when Cape Town works, Capetonians work.

‘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,’ said Mayor Hill-Lewis.

Cape Town will invest more on infrastructure than all three Gauteng metros combined over the three-year medium-term budget framework (R39,7bn vs a combined R38,5bn).

Infrastructure spend targets lower income households

Mayor Hill-Lewis said that lower-income households and areas would benefit from 75% - or R9bn - of Cape Town’s infrastructure spending in 24/25.

‘Cape Town’s lower income households will directly benefit from R9bn in infrastructure spending, a bigger investment than the entire infrastructure budget of any other city for 24/25. Our investments target Cape Town’s fastest-growing, and poorest areas, with infrastructure projects that will, over time, unstitch the unjust legacy of our country’s past.

‘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 amount 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,’ said Mayor Hill-Lewis. 

Metro Capital Budgets MTREF (2024/25 in brackets)

Cape Town – R39,7bn (R12,1bn in 24/25)

Johannesburg – R22bn (R7,2bn)

Ethekwini – R20bn (R7,5bn)

Ekurhuleni – R9bn (R2,9bn)

Tshwane – R7,3bn (R2,3bn)

Nelson Mandela Bay – R5bn (R1,6bn)

Mangaung – R4bn (R1,3bn)

Buffalo City – R3,8bn (R1,2bn)

Issued by Media Office, City of Cape Town, 17 April 2024