In his latest State of the Province Address on 26 February 2025, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde has announced ambitious goals for the province over the coming year.
The Western Cape (WC) plans to significantly boost its road, rail, sea, and air industries as it continues to strengthen its position as the “gateway to the rest of South Africa and Africa.”
Road
As we speak, the WC is busy upgrading the import N7 Potsdam–Melkbos van Schoorsdrift Interchange with a total project value of R790 million.
This is part of a broader project to upgrade about 10km of the N7 to freeway standards.
A new 5km road is being built to link Vissershok Road with a future road to be called Berkshire Boulevard from a point just west of the Malanshoogte Road/Contermanskloof Road.
The project also entails the construction of six new bridges, including the Van Schoorsdrift Interchange bridge over the N7 and a bridge over the Diep River.
The Van Schoorsdrift Road/Old Malmesbury Road will furthermore be realigned for access to the Vissershok Road.
Four of the new bridges will link farmlands and City of Cape Town land which are bisected by the realigned Vissershok and Van Schoorsdrift Roads. It is anticipated that these farmlands will in future become developed land.
Meanwhile, in Malmesbury, a new trunk road is under construction at a cost of R650 million.
In addition, the WC road authorities aim to increase the number of roads resealed and resurfaced over the coming year.
In 2024, 117.55km of roads across the province were resealed and resurfaced, the equivalent of 837,307 square metres.
“By the end of the current financial year, our road crews are aiming to repair and maintain more than 1 million square metres of road,” said Winde.
Rail
To further boost mobility for WC residents, the province is actively working with the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa to support the ongoing restoration of railways.
There used to be 600,000 daily trips taken every day in Cape Town. Today, the best estimation is 80,000.
“It is clear that we have a lot more to do,” said Winde.
Sea
A critical initiative over the coming year will be to dramatically improve the performance of the Port of Cape Town (PoCT) and developing other ports at Saldanha and Mossel Bay.
The TAD group from the Elgin region, comprising more than 50 farms, highlighted the estimated cost of inefficiencies at the PoCT to the province’s pear and apple industry at nearly R1 billion a year.
This translates into a loss of R26,000 per hectare of farmland.
“We are facilitating the establishment of a task team comprising multiple stakeholders, among them Wesgro and Transnet National Ports Authority, to develop solutions to operational challenges in and around the PoCT,” said Winde.
Progress is already being made. The port achieved a milestone in late 2024 by handling the longest vessel ever to call at the container terminal: the more than 348-metre-long MSC Ines.
“If we act swiftly with purpose, we can dramatically increase economic growth nationally to over 3% if the PoCT operates more efficiently,” said Winde.
Air
Through the Cape Town Air Access initiative, run by the provincial government, Wesgro, and Cape Town International Airport, the province has seen the arrival of seven new airlines through seven routes, totaling an impressive one million new inbound seats, since late 2022.
The influx of tourists has created an estaimted 33,000 jobs in the WC, based on the assumption that for every 30 new tourists to a location, one employment opportunity is created.
“The number of arrivals at Cape Town International Airport in December 2024 soared to their highest in 12 years! 160, 537 international arrivals were recorded in just one month,” said Winde.
“This is largely due to our Cape Town Air Access initiative. This project shows that long-term work pays off.”
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