Mayor Hill-Lewis speech: Tabling of 2026-27: City of Hope Budget
31 March 2026
Mayor Hill-Lewis City of Hope Budget Speech
Madam Speaker,
Fellow Councillors,
Colleagues in Team Cape Town,
Tonight Bafana Bafana takes on Panama at Cape Town Stadium. We welcome Panama to the Mother City, and we look forward to supporting Bafana tonight, and I hope to see many of you there.
I also want to welcome a few new councillors who have joined us since we last met. I welcome Cllr Dickson, representing GOOD, Cllr Bulelwa Mayende (ANC) the new ward councillor for Ward 104, Dunoon, Cllr Sonja Meyer (FF+) and Cllr Patrick Phindile George (ANC). You are all warmly welcome in Council.
Colleagues,
In the weeks past and the week to come, all of the major faith communities have and are celebrating their holiest days. We wish all Muslim Capetonians a very blessed Eid, all Jewish Capetonians a blessed Passover, and of course, this weekend, many millions of Capetonians will celebrate Easter. I wish all Christian Capetonians a blessed Easter.
Today, I’m honoured to table the fifth and final budget of this administration.
It is hard to believe we are already at this time in this administration. I want to pause and reflect for a moment on the significance of the occasion – on where we stand on our mission here in Cape Town, and on what this budget hopes to achieve.
That mission, as you all know, is to build this great city of Cape Town into something even better: a place where many more people can live with dignity and independence, and without the fear of poverty and unemployment as a constant shadow over their lives.
That is the greater purpose that guides every single thing we do here – to make Cape Town a place where people have reason to believe in a better future.
That is what we mean by a City of Hope.
We have been steadily building towards this goal over the past four years, and the growth of our budgets – and particularly the capital portion of the budget – in each successive year has mirrored this ambition.
As we now round the corner and enter the final straight of this term of office, with the end in sight, our last budget of the term is simply called the “City of Hope Budget”, as it represents the clearest indication of not only our ambitions for Cape Town, but indeed the remarkable progress we’ve made towards undeniably being South Africa’s one city that works.
A City of Hope for all in the making.
Before I speak to some of the details and highlights of this budget, I want to take a moment to thank each and every member of the team who brought us to this point.
That includes you, all the elected councillors of this City Council, but also many people behind the scenes whose names seldom get mentioned, and whose hard work and valuable insights have helped produce budget after budget of outstanding quality.
Led by our Chief Financial Officer, Kevin Jacoby, this team has once again delivered a budget we can all be proud of. Thanks must go to the Budget Office under the leadership of Carl Stroud and his team, including Zukiswa Nqanqali, Karen Fourie, Sumaya Rinquest, and Linda Swart.
Let’s give them a round of applause.
Colleagues,
As I am sure you know, we have taken on infrastructure projects of impressive – and you might even say daunting – scale in this term of office. Some of these projects are the largest of their kind ever undertaken by a city government in South Africa, and their completions span multiple years.
Progress on these projects can sometimes feel frustrating, because they invariably require a lot of planning, design, and lengthy procurements.
But you do hit a point when momentum becomes undeniable, and when many projects move from planning to implementation. I must say it is so exciting and satisfying to see now, in these outer years of this term, so much incredible progress on our biggest builds.
Our extensive MyCiti Cape Flats expansion is now a construction site from end to end, the full 40 odd kilometres.
Then there’s our Cape Flats Bulk Sewer upgrade – also the biggest of its kind in South Africa – along with our multiple wastewater treatment works upgrades, pipe replacements, electricity grid investments, informal settlement upgrades and our many social housing projects.
These are the infrastructure investments that have accounted for the vast bulk of our capital budgets in previous years, as they will continue to do in the draft budget we are tabling today.
These projects involve a lot of concrete and steel. But what they really do is transform the lives of Capetonians and enable them to live with dignity and hope.
Alongside these mega projects, we have been delivering a steady stream of much smaller, but to my mind, equally important investments in community facilities right across the metro – projects that will bring the kind of joy to communities that you cannot put a price on.
This past year, in particular, has been an incredibly busy year for upgrading sports facilities: our City has delivered soccer pitches, athletics tracks and upgraded swimming pools in various parts of Cape Town.
I make a point of attending every opening of these facilities, because seeing what it means to communities is the best possible confirmation that we are indeed making progress in building a Cape Town that is shared, loved and owned by all.
At the start of this term, places like Wesfleur Stadium in Atlantis, Blue Downs Stadium and Lentegeur Sports fields were in bad condition. So too with Mandela Park and Bishop Lavis. Now, they are all rebuilt, restored, modern, world class community facilities.
I think in particular of how the famous Collegians Rugby Club could not play at their home ground for a long time. Now they are back, and winning at home in the heart of Mitchells Plain again. This means a great deal to me, and I am so glad to see Collegians back home.
I want to make special mention of one facility in particular, because this project is very close to my heart.
Once it is done, it is going to be one of Cape Town’s, and particularly the community around Mitchells Plain’s most loved and treasured sites.
I am speaking, of course, of our redevelopment of the iconic Strandfontein Pavilion on the False Bay coastline.
When I took on this job, that was one of the first things I announced, because I know what Strandfontein means to so many generations of Capetonians.
We all know the strong connection and beautiful memories people have of that place, and I’ve been glad to hear these first-hand from many residents.
I heard some of them calling into the radio this week. You know when you hear names like Aunty May and Aunty Anne calling in, you’re hearing from a particular generation.
I heard how they attended dances at the Pavilion back in the day, and how fondly they reminisce about that place. I heard how they ate at the Ebb Tide, or at the Blue Waters Café.
Attending the sod turning last week, and spending the morning among so many people for whom Strandfontein means so much, was one of the more emotional and satisfying days of my entire time in this job.
What we’re going to build there with this R300m investment – the shops and restaurants, the concert and events spaces, the boat launch ramp and NSRI base, and all the beautiful upgrades to the whole precinct – is going to make the new Strandfontein Pavilion a place that future generations will reminisce about in the same way.
I cannot wait to see it take shape in the coming years, and for thousands of families to start enjoying it.
I want to put out a call to the Mitchells Plain business community. We are building the space. But the businesses, the restaurants, the cafes, must be yours. Please bring us the proposals – we must have a sea food restaurant where you can eat your fish looking at the fishing boats in False Bay right in front of you.
I want to give so much credit to two colleagues who have championed this project from the start: Cllr Elton Jansen, and Cllr Dani Christians. Their passion for this project, and for the coastline, has seen this project through. We owe them a debt of gratitude.
Finally, on this topic, colleagues, we must be honest about the fact that all of these community facilities should not have been allowed to fall into disrepair to begin with.
We have worked hard to repair the budget of the Department of Sports and Recreation, and to capacitate it with better management, clearer leadership, a more accountable structure, and with clear expectations for the standards we want to achieve in Cape Town.
Today, I’m pleased to announce a further injection of R130m in the Sports and Recreation departmental budget for the maintenance and upgrade of community facilities. This is in addition to their normal base adjustment, which is also above inflation.
Over this term in office, we have increased the budget for repairs and maintenance across the city by 43%, and in parks and recreation specifically by 79%. The results are starting to show.
Let us be crystal clear about what we want: Every child in Cape Town must have safe, beautiful, well-maintained places to play, relax, swim, do sports, or visit the beach. We will not rest until we achieve that standard.
Colleagues,
This Budget is what turns our vision, our pledges and our ambitions for Cape Town into the kind of delivery I have just spoken about.
To give you some perspective on the progress we’ve made, in the 2021/22 budget, when all of us were elected, the City’s capital budget was R6.1bn. Today, four years on, we are tabling a capital budget of over R13bn. We’ve more than doubled our capital investment.
And as has been the case for each of the last few years, our capital budget remains higher than the three Gauteng metros combined.
The tragic collapse of infrastructure and service delivery of other metros is a direct result of their failure to invest the bare minimum.
It’s also important to note where in the City we are spending money. I spoke earlier of our major transport and sanitation projects across the Cape Flats, as well as our investments in community facilities there.
If you go through this budget line by line, you will see that the bulk of the money goes to where the need is the greatest: 75% of our infrastructure budget directly benefits lower-income households.
Just the portion of our capital budget spent in low-income communities alone is substantially bigger than the City of Johannesburg’s entire capital budget.
We do this because Cape Town can only work when it works for all its residents.
We cannot claim to be making progress towards building a City of Hope if that hope is not experienced by every Capetonian.
And we have managed to achieve this while still offering ratepayers the lowest monthly bills compared to other metros.
Madam Speaker,
Since the start of this term, we have added 1340 new Law Enforcement and Metro Police officers.
Today, we raise our Safety and Security budget further, as we propose a R6.8bn budget this year.
If the safety of our residents was in the hands of a competent and well-resourced SAPS, we could’ve spent much of this money on other pressing priorities. But the reality is that SAPS is unable to adequately protect our communities against violent criminals, and so we’ve had to step into the gap with our own resources and our own officers.
This is also the reason we have allocated R114m from our Urban Mobility budget towards the design and construction of the N2 Edge – the safety related upgrades we will build along a stretch of the highway benefitting motorists, pedestrians and communities.
We are paying no attention to those posturing and grandstanding on this project, especially those urging us to pursue “healing” and hand-holding with the criminals.
We can understand why they, in particular, would prefer us to be soft on crime, coming as they do from a criminal enterprise posing as a political party. They can be soft on crime if they want to, and play kumbaya with criminals if they want to, but residents will take note.
Make no mistake, we don’t play kumbaya with criminals.
We know we have the overwhelming support of the communities along the N2 as well as the motorists who use the road every day, and those are the opinions that matter.
The N2 Edge barrier will not only protect motorists against the kind of violent and traumatic attack which has become far too commonplace in recent years, it will also offer better safety to the people living in those communities, and for their children who play close to the highway.
Madam Speaker,
With a healthy R6bn investment in electricity grid upgrades over the three-year Medium-Term Framework, this budget also confirms our intent to secure Cape Town’s dynamic, decentralised energy future, as we lessen our Eskom dependence and transition to cleaner, more sustainable energy sources.
We’re spending R1,8bn on further investments in energy-secure service delivery, which include R659m for renewable energy systems, R589m to upgrade our Steenbras hydroelectric dam to offer even better protection against load-shedding, a further R124m for Waste-to-Energy projects, and R165m for installations of LED street lighting.
Then we get to Water and Sanitation, and this is a really big one, as with every budget we’ve tabled.
I spoke earlier of the importance of projects like our Cape Flats bulk sewer upgrades, and the way we’re accelerating the amount of sewer and water pipes we replace every year. This is because nothing impacts dignity and quality of life more than access to proper sanitation.
For the 2026/27 financial year we have allocated R5,4bn to Water and Sanitation infrastructure upgrades. That is more than two and a half times the R2bn we spent in the first year of this term.
Over the three-year MTREF, Water and Sanitation gets an incredible R16,7bn – or a full 40% of our total capital budget. That includes R2bn for sewer and water pipe replacements.
Between 2022 and 2025, Cape Town replaced three times more water and sewer pipes than Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni combined – 401km in total!
Another priority, and one which we have greatly accelerated this term, is enabling more affordable housing in well-located parts of Cape Town.
You’ll know by now that we have a land release pipeline of around 12,000 units of affordable housing at various stages of completion by Social Housing Institutions and the private sector.
This is in addition to the three major social housing projects undertaken by our colleagues in the provincial government, of which we just unveiled the latest right here in the city centre, and which will be partially built on land released by the City.
Added to this, we have also set aside R3,3bn for informal settlement upgrades and R1,3bn over the MTREF to upgrade, maintain and repair the City’s stock of affordable rental units.
Madam Speaker,
I have already touched on the scale and impact of the MyCiti expansion into Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha. In this budget we are putting a further R3,3bn towards this expansion.
Alongside the MyCiti investments, we’re also allocating R3,7bn for road upgrades and pothole repairs, and R654m for congestion relief.
Of course, our bigger goal is to take over the running of the Metrorail service too, and then integrate this with the bus services on one single ticketing system.
Colleagues,
One of our pledges to Capetonians four years ago was to Do the Basics Better. And by basics, we mean the bread and butter of a local government – things like streetlights and refuse removal.
Ask any recent Cape Town convert from Johannesburg what impresses them most about their new home city, and chances are many of them would say the fact that our streetlights work, and that they get repaired so soon after a fault has been reported.
This is a reputation we are very proud of, and we are investing R1bn in this budget to repair and maintain our streetlights.
We’re also spending R1,2bn over the three-year period to purchase new refuse removal vehicles in order to maintain a quality service to residents.
Madam Speaker,
Everything I have listed here, along with the hundreds of other line items contained in this budget, come at a considerable cost, and to balance this expenditure with our available revenue is no small task.
It requires meticulous prioritisation of the city’s needs, and it also requires a very sensitive and respectful approach to revenue collection from our ratepayers.
Every three years, we update the General Valuation roll of properties in the metro to bring them in line with market value.
And, as you all know, Cape Town’s property market is experiencing a period of strong growth right now – the only city in South Africa with this kind of growth, which is great news for anyone who owns a property in Cape Town as this is most often a family’s biggest financial asset.
To help homeowners, we’re proposing a 10,2% lower rate-in-rand.
The first R500 000 of property value will also be rates-free, and this will now be for all homes up to R8m.
These measures ensure that around 60% of households will actually experience no change at all or a small decrease in rates, even though their property value has risen.
To show how these measures shield households, consider the case of Carlo from Belhar, whose property increased in value by 9% since the 2022 valuation, and yet his annual rates are set to come down by R82.
Or Claudine, from Belhar, whose home also went up in value by almost 9% since 2022, while her new annual rates bill will be R118 lower.
Or Mohammed from Colorado in Mitchells Plain, who has seen a 10% growth in property value since 2022, but will see his rates come down by R79.
Cape Town is South Africa’s one city that works, offering better services, better infrastructure, and the chance for your property asset to grow in value, no matter who you are or where you live.
Compare this to every other metro, where property values have stagnated or are in fact in decline, as their governments raise property rates while collapsing service delivery.
There is no comparison.
Madam Speaker,
In this Budget we have also managed to keep increases to water, sanitation, refuse collection and city cleaning to a minimum.
For refuse collection and city-wide cleaning, we have kept both these increases around the inflation rate at 3,75%.
We have revised the property value bands for the city-wide cleaning charge to keep the number of properties per band more or less constant and, in doing so, prevent any bracket creep.
The qualifying criteria for rebates for both refuse collection and city-wide cleaning have also been widened to ensure that no one who was previously receiving rebates is now excluded because of their property value rise.
Water and Sanitation tariffs will see an increase of just 4,5%.
Cape Town continues to offer the highest allocation of free water and sanitation of all cities in South Africa, at 15Kl of water and 10.5Kl of sanitation, as well as the widest criteria to qualify for a 100% rates rebate, which has now been raised from R450,000 property value up to R620,000, or for those with a household income below R7,500.
Again, we have adjusted the property value bands for fixed charges to ensure there’s no bracket creep.
All of this is set out in the budget tables.
When it comes to electricity increases, we are still very much at the mercy of Eskom and Nersa.
Nersa has approved an increase of 9,01%, but we have managed to keep our own increase more than two percentage points lower than the Eskom increase to municipalities, at an average of 6,67%.
We continue to offer our customers the widest qualifying criteria for the Lifeline tariff, along with the protection we introduced three years ago where Lifeline customers can buy an increased number of units at the cheaper, subsidised rate.
Pensioners and social grant recipients will continue to benefit from rates rebates and lifeline electricity due to the raised upper qualifying limit of R27 000 total monthly household income, regardless of your property value.
This is South Africa’s highest pensioner discount.
Madam Speaker,
These are just some of the highlights of a very detailed and comprehensive budget.
It is a budget that speaks to a city geared for growth and job creation – a city in which residents and businesses are assured of quality services far into the future, and in which struggling households receive more protection than anywhere else in South Africa.
However, that is not to say that all is perfect here, and we don’t have challenges.
Of course we do, but ours are the type of challenges that follow growth and expansion, and not the challenges of failure.
Ours are not the challenges of infrastructure collapse due to decades of neglect and underinvestment.
Ours are not the challenges of a city government underqualified and unprepared for the future.
Ours are not the challenges of poor financial management and a lack of vision.
No, Cape Town’s challenges are about the pressures of success, of growth, of a city that aspires to be an even better place to live in future, for all.
They are not small challenges, but I assure you they are the kind you would prefer to have, given a choice.
And speaking of choice, colleagues, we are in a year in which South Africans are going to have to make some very important choices as we go to the polls towards the end of the year to vote for local governments.
It is my sincere hope that Capetonians take note of the progress and successes I have just spoken about, and which are enabled by the budget we’re tabling today, and then vote to extend that progress for another five years.
Last week we got a small indication, in the Dunoon by-election, that this might just be the case, as double the number of residents threw their support behind this City’s governing party.
This is a sign that on the ground, in our lower-income neighbourhoods, a true difference is indeed being felt, and old loyalties are vanishing for parties who have failed and betrayed our nation.
Now, colleagues, we still have much work to do. And so, I am proud to table in this Council today a budget that will enable us to raise our ambitions even higher and achieve even more for the people of Cape Town.
This 2026/27 draft budget – our City of Hope Budget – is hereby tabled and opened for public comment.
Thank you.
End
Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
