Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has launched a R120-billion infrastructure portfolio that is poised to form the foundation for economic growth in the city for the next ten years.

Planned projects include upgrading wastewater works and sewers; delivering 300-million litres from new water sources daily; ending loadshedding; building a new Khayelitsha-Claremont bus route and fixing passenger rail; upgrading various city-wide roads; expanding waste collection, drop-off sites and landfill capacity; and releasing land and bulk services for more affordable housing.

“In Cape Town. we are passionate about significantly accelerating our city’s infrastructure investment pipeline. Nothing else has consumed more time in our first year in government than this pipeline – making sure that we budget for this expansion, that our big projects are properly planned, and that we have the skilled people necessary to turn plans into projects.

“Last year, our infrastructure budget was R5.7-billion. In two years, it will be upwards of R12-billion. Next year, it will be R10.5-billion. That means we will be growing infrastructure investment by 110% in three years,” he says.

Hill-Lewis this week released the city’s inaugural City Infrastructure Report, which presents a view of Cape Town’s ten-year master plan for infrastructure and how it is planned to evolve. 

The Mayor says the report will be published yearly in a drive for the government to be open and transparent with Capetonians about the state of the city and what government is doing to meet their needs.

In particular, the city is working to end loadshedding over time by buying power on the open market, with three-phase power procurement to offset up to four stages of loadshedding within three years, paying businesses and residents to sell power to the city, implementing incentives for voluntary energy savings and building municipal power generation projects, including the Steenbras hydro power project.

Between now and 2028, Cape Town plans to spend R1-billion a year on electricity infrastructure, with 58% of this spend going towards maintaining grid and medium-voltage infrastructure.

Electricity generation makes up the second-largest spending item in planned refurbishment and replacement projects over the next ten years.

Moreover, water security projects will take the lion’s share of the infrastructure portfolio budget. The city is investing about R5-billion to introduce 300 megalitres of water a day from new sources by 2030, with the first groundwater being injected into the supply network from the Cape Flats Aquifer in mid-2023.

Other major upgrades will be made at the Potsdam, Zandvliet, Athlone, Macassar and Bellville wastewater works, while a seven-fold increase in budgets for sewer pump station upgrades has been approved for 2024 and 2025.

Moreover, more than R6-billion has been approved for transport and roads infrastructure over three years, while the human settlements budget will see R2.8-billion spent over three years to release land and upgrade informal settlements, as well as to build units – including 800 in the inner city and 2 500 along Voortrekker Road corridor and close to economic nodes.

In total, the city has 6 500 social housing rental units in the pipeline across 50 land parcels.

Cape Town is also allocating a significant portion of its budget to upgrade landfill infrastructure, which will see it add 35 years of additional years of landfill airspace.

The city will spend R650-million on new refuse removal vehicles over three years to ensure a more reliable service.

The provincial government’s mission is to make Cape Town a beacon of hope in South Africa, and show how a government can plan for the future, invest consistently and maintain what it has, particularly as urbanisation is set to increase.