City of Cape Town spends R9,4 billion on infrastructure in 2023/24

City of Cape Town spends big bucks on infrastructure

A new South African record has been set by the City of Cape Town for the largest single-year infrastructure investment for a financial year.

According to a statement by The City, the infrastructure investment totalled a whopping R9,4 billion based on data for the 2023/24 financial year ending 30 June this year.

Mayor Hill-Lewis announced the City’s top-performing directorates for capital expenditure in an address this week, saying that the City of Cape Town’s Energy Directorate (R1,1 billion or 94,25% of budget spent) was the top performer in the ‘Billion Club’ of directorates with infrastructure budgets over R1 billion.

The two other directorates in this category also performed well, with Water and Sanitation spending R3,3 billion (93% of budget committed), and Urban Mobility spending R1,5 billion (92% spent or committed).

Other top performers were Safety and Security spending R444 million (99,2% spent), Human Settlements spending R960 million (98% spent), and Corporate Services with R655 million spent (96%).

Record for South Africa

The mayor also revealed that the spend was not only a City of Cape Town record, but also a South African record infrastructure investment.

“To achieve these numbers in a responsible manner requires an extraordinary effort right across the entire Team Cape Town, and we are just getting started.” Mayor Hill-Lewis said.

‘At a combined R39,5bn for the next three years, our infrastructure budget is 80% bigger than the next biggest city – Johannesburg – and almost 100% bigger than the third biggest, Durban. The vast bulk of this spend – a full 75% – is earmarked for projects that will directly benefit our metro’s lower income households.

‘And while the obvious benefit will be the improved sanitation, better water security, better energy security, expanded public transport, thousands more affordable housing opportunities, safer communities and cleaner public places and waterways, there is also an important jobs benefit to this investment. We estimate that just the construction industry jobs alone resulting from this three-year R39,5bn infrastructure spend will be in the region of 130,000. That’s a huge employment boost for our city,’ said Mayor Hill-Lewis.