Cape Town mayor Hill-Lewis urges Godongwana to protect municipal funding

As finance minister Enoch Godongwana prepares to deliver the national budget on Wednesday, Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has urged him not to cut municipal funding.

On Monday Hill-Lewis said while significant funds may be required to balance the budget, “this should never be done at the cost of cutting municipal allocations or infrastructure funding, because these are essential for improving basic services and fixing infrastructure.

“There is more than enough waste and excess that can be cut in national government to balance the budget and we are absolutely opposed to any cuts being passed down to municipalities, or indeed any further cuts in infrastructure spending.”

Hill-Lewis said the national government can't bemoan the state of cities and then continuously slash municipal infrastructure and service delivery allocations whenever they need to find money. The mayor said more than R107m was slashed from grant funding to Cape Town as part of nationwide cuts in 2023/24.

“The metro maintains it is able to spend as much grant funding as national government can provide, having spent a minimum of 99% of all grant funding since 2020 to upgrade informal settlements and provide a measure of free housing to the poorest.”

Hill-Lewis called for Cape Town to receive its “fair equitable share from the national fiscus based on updated census figures showing the metro is about to overtake Johannesburg as South Africa's most populous city of nearly 5-million residents.

“For Cape Town to sustainably deliver free basic services to the poorest, it is vital that our metro receives a fair equitable share funding aligned to our growing population.

“To subsidise free basic services, metros use both equitable share funding and property rates. When national funding dwindles, property rates need to make up for it. As it stands, the city and its ratepayers must already absorb the impact of a R243m decrease to Cape Town's equitable share for 2025/26 compared to what was gazetted in the Division of Revenue Act in 2023/24.”

Hill-Lewis urged Godongwana to make good on President Cyril Ramaphosa's 2024 state of the nation address promise to introduce new infrastructure funding schemes for cities.

“Cape Town is investing a South African record of R39.7bn in infrastructure over three years, 75% of which will directly benefit lower-income households. But we'd like to do even more. In fact, we need to, given the urgency of investing in sustainable water, sanitation, electricity, roads and other infrastructure.

“It is important that the finance minister follows through on the president's promise of new and innovative infrastructure funding schemes for cities, alongside measures to simplify regulations and cut red tape.”

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