Cape Town — Cape Town mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, announced the details for the City of Cape Town’s (CoCT) plans to invest R120bn over the next 10 years as it looks to improve infrastructure across the metro.
The city released its second annual infrastructure report where it outlined the details of the new infrastructure plans, which is set to outpace other major metros. Hill-Lewis said the city’s rapid growh means they are set to invest more in infrastructure than Durban and Johannesburg combined.
“We are future-proofing our city by investing in infrastructure at a rate far outpacing any other metro, in fact over the next three years we will invest R43bn, which is more than Joburg and Durban combined.” he said.
With Cape Town set to overtake Johannesburg as SA’s most populated city, there are plans to increase its economic growth, which will lead to greater job creation and opportunities.
“The City’s infrastructure investments will further create an estimated 135 000 jobs over three years, based only on the initial investment, excluding downstream economic benefits. This is aside from the greater personal and community dignity that comes with improved infrastructure.” he said.
Our second annual Infrastructure Report is now out, where we set out in detail our R120 billion infrastructure pipeline! We also take an in-depth look at infrastructure investment in Maitland.
Over the next ten years, we’re investing in roads, water, energy, and more –… pic.twitter.com/eOpwhW2ZOH
— Geordin Hill-Lewis (@geordinhl) February 14, 2024
In addition, the city also announced significant increases in planned Water and Sanitation infrastructure, to reduce sewer spills. This will include replacing 100km worth of sewer pipes and sewer upgrades in major parts of the city. Water and Sanitation investment now makes up 42% of Cape Town’s R120 billion 10-year pipeline.
There would also be a drastic improvement in pubic transport. The current project is worth R5.4bn across three years, with a further R21bn planned for three major corridors.
“These corridors are the next major long-term investments after the completion of MyCiTi Phase 2A route servicing the metro-southeast from Claremont/Wynberg to Khayelitsha/Mitchell’s Plain, currently the biggest infrastructure project in the Western Cape worth R5.4bn over the next three years,’ Hill-Lewis said.
Other highlights include a water programme that will provide 300 litres of water per day by 2030, an additional 650MW of independent power added to the Cape Town grid by 2026/27 to protect against four stages of Eskom’s load-shedding, with the aim of adding 1GW in time, and land released for well-located affordable housing over the last year will result in an estimated 1 500 social housing units, within a total yield of 3 300 units.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
