Draft budget puts infrastructure investment at R39.7bn in Cape Town

Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis presented the draft 2025/2026 budget in an address to the city council on Thursday, making provision for infrastructure investment of R39.7bn over three years.

The proposed investments include:

• more than R16.5bn for water and sanitation;
• R5bn for electricity grid upgrades;
• R3.4bn for roads; and
• R4.5bn for a new MyCiTi bus route linking Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain and other communities with Wynberg and Claremont.

The safety and security budget of R6.7bn would see more than 700 new municipal police officers deployed in the metro.

‘These 700 new officers are over and above the 400 new officers we’ve added to the ranks of law enforcement and metro police since the start of this term. We are going to post officers in neighbourhoods where they will be stationed permanently and where they will get to know that community well. They will get to know the neighbourhood challenges, the problem buildings and the residents,” said Hill-Lewis.

The proposed budget included tariff restructuring reforms that would provide relief for lower income households, including:

• water and sanitation fixed charges would be determined by property values rather than connection size, bringing relief to lower income households; and
• an electricity increase of 2% on average, compared with Eskom’s 11.32% increase to municipalities.

"‘This budget contains Cape Town’s planned infrastructure investment over three years which, at R39.7bn, is more than the three Gauteng metros combined and will create more than 130,000 construction-related jobs.

"Crucially, a full 75% of this investment directly benefits lower-income households.

“Every budget is a balancing act and for us this is between our bold plans to build the Cape Town of the future and the need to shield our most vulnerable residents from the enormous financial pressures that make their daily lives hard.”

TimesLIVE