Cape Town Mayor Hill-Lewis appeals to Finance Minister not to make budget cuts

CAPE TOWN - Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has appealed to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana not to make any more budget cuts that will affect the provision of municipal services to the poor.

Godongwana will deliver the new administration's first Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement on Wednesday. 

Hill-Lewis says the slashing of over a hundred million rand in grants for housing and informal settlements last year - is making it harder to meet the needs of the city’s growing population which is edging closer to five million.

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The mayor is making three calls for Godongwana to stop trimming grant funding for housing.

To give more money to cities for infrastructure development and to give Cape Town an equitable share aligned with its growing population.

“The truth is we can and want to do so much more if we had the funding support from the national government. Making these pro-poor changes will be money well spent. In Cape Town, we have an excellent track record of spending at least 99% of our grant funding over the last five years.”

Hill-Lewis said the city would invest almost R40 billion in infrastructure over the next three years

Two-thirds of it is directed at lower-income households.

He added the fiscus should pay the city an equitable share in line with the population census.