We have just reached the end of the City’s financial year, and I am delighted to report that the City of Cape Town has successfully spent R6.94 bn of the R7 bn we’d budgeted for capital expenditure for the year.
This spend represents 99.14% of our capex budget – an impressive number that is testament to the incredible work done by City staff and officials this past year to deliver on our commitments.
R6.94 bn is the most the City has ever spent on infrastructure in a single year, and even outstrips our spend in 2010 when we hosted the Soccer World Cup with all its mega infrastructure projects.
And we’re only getting started.
For this new financial year, our infrastructure budget ramps up to R11 bn. Next year it becomes R14 bn, and in 2025, the final year of this administration, that goes all the way up to R18 bn.
Over these next three years we will spend more on infrastructure projects than Johannesburg and Durban combined.
We’re spending these big numbers on sewer pipes, pump stations, wastewater treatment works, new water sources, electricity grid maintenance, roads and many other projects, because that is what it takes to prepare a growing city for the future. Once you fall behind in your maintenance and expansion, it is very hard to catch up and the consequences can quickly become dire.
Last week these consequences became very real for the residents of Johannesburg when a massive explosion in the sewers of the city centre ripped through Bree Street, claiming a life and injuring many others. Whether this explosion was caused by a natural gas leak, a build-up of sewer gas, or a combination of the two, this freak incident shows why it is so important to ensure that a city’s sewer system is built to the right standard and capacity, and why it is critical to constantly monitor, maintain and clean the system.
This is why we have prioritised the “invisible backbone” of our metro in our budget.
And to give you an idea of what this big budget buys the City, we set ourselves a target to double our sewer pipe replacement to 50 km in this past financial year, and we managed to exceed that target. For this new financial year, our target doubles that again to 100km.
We’ve also embarked on South Africa’s largest ever sewer upgrade project – a R715 million upgrade to the Cape Flats bulk sewer line which will benefit 300 000 households – and we’re on track to complete the full 28 km of the pipeline rehabilitation by 2025.
We’re very serious about building resilience so that we are prepared for the Cape Town of the future. If we do this right, the growth of our metro will be our strength.
But I also have to add that none of this would be possible without our ratepayers. Cape Town has the highest revenue collection rate in the country, and this alone is what allows us to embark on projects that no other metro can even consider.
To every household that diligently pays their rates bill every month, you are what makes this City work. You are the reason Cape Town can plan and build for the future. I thank you.
