Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has described the city as South Africa’s “City of Hope” while reflecting on his administration’s work over the past five years.

In his final City Council address of the current term, Hill-Lewis pointed to infrastructure investment, employment, public transport, energy and safety as key areas of progress.

He acknowledged that major challenges remain, but said Cape Town is now “a stronger, more productive, more inclusive and more caring place” than it was five years ago.

Record infrastructure spending

The City invested a record R12.2 billion in critical basic infrastructure during the 2025/26 financial year. This is more than double the R6 billion invested during the first year of the term.

According to City estimates, around 75% of the infrastructure investment directly benefits lower-income households.

Spending has gone towards water and sanitation, electricity, roads, public facilities and public transport.

Cape Town has also increased its annual sewer pipe replacement programme to 100km a year. Pump station failures have fallen by two-thirds while sewer spills have dropped by around a third over the term.

Cape Town highlights job growth

Hill-Lewis also pointed to employment figures as evidence of economic progress.

Statistics South Africa labour force data covering the first quarter of 2022 to the second quarter of 2026 shows Cape Town accounted for 418 000 of the 841 000 jobs added across South Africa’s metros.

This means Cape Town accounted for roughly half of metro job growth during that period.

Safety, energy and transport projects

More than 1 300 City police officers were added during the term, alongside technology including body cameras, dashcams, drones and CCTV.

The City also secured its first 200MW of independent power as part of efforts to reduce reliance on Eskom.

Hill-Lewis highlighted the R7.1 billion Cape Flats MyCiTi expansion, which is expected to benefit more than 1.4 million residents across 30 neighbourhoods.

The planned network will connect areas including Mitchells Plain, Khayelitsha, Wynberg and Claremont.

Despite highlighting these developments, Hill-Lewis said there is still more work ahead.

“We are only getting started,” he said, adding that the city still has “further to climb”.