Cape Town spent a record R9.5bn on infrastructure in 2024/25

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31-07-2025
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Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has announced that the City successfully invested R9.5 billion in infrastructure in 2024/25, an all-time record for a South African metro.

It also represents 92,3% of the City’s full-year infrastructure budget.

Safety and Security was the City’s top-performer for percentage spent – at 99,7% – while Water and Sanitation was the top spender in rands, with 94,7% spent of its R4bn capital budget.

In an address to the City Council on Wednesday, Hill-Lewis said the only way for Cape Town to avoid the crises that have befallen every other city in South Africa is to invest in infrastructure at a much higher level.

“It’s one thing to allocate record budgets for infrastructure, and quite another thing to actually deliver these large projects in a very complex construction environment. This result is most pleasing – with a full 92,3% and R9,5 billion of our capital investment budget having been successfully invested. This shows that we are delivering on our pledges to invest in more of the basic infrastructure that makes the city work.”

Safety and Security – with the best percentage spend of 99,7% of its R472m capital budget – largely invested these funds in fire station and metro police training facility upgrades, vehicles, and safety technology, such as CCTV, bodycams and digital coordination systems.

Other top performers for percentage spend in 2024/25 were Urban Waste Management (96.3% of R400m budget), and Corporate Services (97,4% of R432m).

At 95% spent of its R4bn capital budget, Water and Sanitation was the top spender in City’s group of four directorates, which each need to invest over R1 billion per year in infrastructure, which together make up 79% of the entire capital budget.

“Water & Sanitation projects accounted for almost 40c out of every infrastructure rand spent in the city this past financial year. To achieve a spend performance of almost 95% on such a big budget takes some doing. The projects funded by the Water & Sanitation capital budget are a vital part of realising our vision for Cape Town and future-proofing our city for decades to come. Every section of pipe replacement, every wastewater works upgrade, every pump station that gets refurbished, every source of water that is added to the City supply, is an investment in the dignity and health of Capetonians, and is changing people’s lives.”

Other directorates investing over R1 billion this year include Energy (92,5% spent), Human Settlements (92%), and Urban Mobility (84,4%).

Over the next three years, Cape Town plans to spend an SA-record R40bn on infrastructure under the Invested in Hope Budget, with 75% of this spending directly benefitting lower-income households.

This includes:

Over 700 new municipal police officers, including dedicated neighbourhood policing for every ward, and over 200 officers to protect service delivery teams from criminals.
R4.5 billion for the new MyCiTi route linking Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain and various other communities to Wynberg/Claremont
Bringing down sewer spills and water pipe bursts by replacing 100km of sewer and 50km of water pipes per year, a R2bn project
Major bulk sewer upgrades such as the Cape Flats sewer upgrade, which is SA’s biggest sewer upgrade project
Road upgrades, repairs and congestion relief – R3.5bn
Informal settlement upgrades – R3.4bn
Street light upgrading and repair – R1bn
CRU rental unit upgrades and maintenance – R2bn
Public Transport station upgrades – R397m
Informal trading infrastructure upgrades – R272m