R7.5-billion transport upgrades as Cape Town prepares to become South Africa’s biggest city

Cape Town plans to spend R39.5 billion on infrastructure development from July 2024 to June 2027 as it prepares to become South Africa’s most populous metro in the wake of a semigration trend that has seen many inland citizens flock to the Mother City.

While the lion’s share of the capital will be funneled toward water and sanitation, there will be a substantial allocation of as much as R7.5 billion to the city’s public transport services.

“This pro-poor infrastructure spend in 2024/25 is bigger than the entire infrastructure budget of any other metro,” said mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.

“Cape Town will soon be South Africa’s most populous city, and we are preparing for this by targeting our fastest-growing and poorest areas, with infrastructure projects that will, over time, unstitch the unjust legacy of our country’s past.”

A focus on public transport

Hill-Lewis said that Cape Town will focus more on strengthening its public transport systems in the coming years than on servicing private motorists as this is the area lacking the most.

The city is actively expanding its MyCiTi bus service to the metro south-east to support underserved communities such as Claremont, Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain, Phillipi, and Wynberg, which it forecasts will be completed by the end of 2025.

Cape Town is also fighting the national government to hand over control of the metro’s passenger rail operations which will allow it to bring the service back from a state of disrepair.

A functional railway will add R11 billion to the local economy and save lower-income families in Cape Town as much as R932 million each year, as well as sustain 51,000 jobs, found the city’s ongoing Rail Feasibility Study.

“You won’t see much money going into new highways and things like that in the coming years. You have to prioritise quite ruthlessly, and we have to prioritise public transport over private vehicle transport,” said Hill-Lewis in a Cape Talk interview.

“So the [money] will mainly go to buses, and hopefully one day soon, it will also go to trains if we win the argument on the devolution of passenger rail which we think is absolutely essential for the running of a five-million-person metro.”