Cape Town - The City of Cape Town spent R6.9 billion on infrastructure in the 2022/23 financial year ending June 30, breaking its all-time infrastructure spending record.
Addressing the City Council, mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said: “We have just clocked the highest capital expenditure the City has ever achieved, even exceeding the mega projects before the 2010 Fifa World Cup. This year, we have invested a record R6.9bn in capital investment and infrastructure, or 93.5% of our planned budget.”
Hill-Lewis said this was the first year of his administration’s four-year major infrastructure acceleration and that by 2025 the City would have spent R18bn.
This would amount to a 134% increase over the next three years, bringing the total to more than R50bn.
“That money will buy the residents of Cape Town a substantial amount of sewer and water pipes, sewerage pump stations, wastewater works, road upgrades, electricity grid maintenance, safety technology, as well as equipment and vehicles.”
Despite the increased spending, councillors appeared concerned about the question of the new electricity tariffs which came into effect from July 1, driving electricity prices for municipal consumers up by 17.6%.
Councillors Fadiel Adams (Cape Coloured Congress) and Gavin Joachims (GOOD) were among those who put questions to the mayor about the tariffs, which have caused a storm of protest among Cape Town residents.
The City is one of only six municipalities that has refused to comply with the 15.1% increase threshold.
Earlier this month, Nersa ruled against the eThekwini Municipality’s proposed increase of 18.49% and only granted a 15.1% increase.
This week we reported that energy regulator Nersa had invited the City to respond to complaints lodged by consumer groups, political parties and trade unions of an excessive electricity tariff increase.
Responding to the questions, Hill-Lewis said some political parties criticising the City on the tariffs were being hypocritical as they were responsible for even higher tariffs in other municipalities where they had control.
He gave the example of neighbouring Theewaterskloof Municipality, where he said the electricity tariffs were 16% higher than the Nersa-approved threshold.
Meanwhile, opposition parties on the council appeared split on a proposal to accept the amendments of the previous council resolution to transfer land, used for community healthcare services, back to the provincial Department of Infrastructure.
In the proposal supported by Mayco member for economic growth James Vos, Eikendal Primary Healthcare Services in Kraaifontein and Milnerton Primary Healthcare Services in Bothasig would be affected.
While the ANC, EFF, PA and other parties accepted the proposal after expressing their concerns, GOOD stood alone in opposing it and said the proposal should not be adopted as it did not serve the best interests of communities in the areas.
GOOD councillor Celeste Wannenburgh said she was concerned that there was no full transparency with the proposal and demanded that the transfer of the properties be re-assessed.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za