Mayor Hill-Lewis final Council address of the term – 20 August 2026

Madam Speaker  

Honoured Guests 

Fellow Councillors 

Aldermen, and Team Cape Town colleagues 

Fellow Capetonians,  

Goeiemôre, molweni, as-salam alaykum, shalom, good morning, 

Here we are, at our final council meeting of this term of office. It doesn’t feel like almost five years ago that I first stood here and addressed you as Mayor. 

The time, and the term, have just flown by. 

But when I think of all we have achieved together these past five years – of everything we built and the lives touched for the better – then five years doesn’t feel quite long enough. 

Cape Town is in a good place.  

Yes, we still have many great challenges – but five years on, Cape Town is a stronger, more productive, more inclusive and more caring city than when we started.  

You can all feel proud of what we have achieved. Thank you for the role that each of you have played in all that we have done. 

I want to pay special tribute to those who are retiring from Council at the end of this term. We will honour them tonight at our closing dinner, but I want to thank them all for their service to the City and the people of Cape Town. 

I also want to thank the Deputy Mayor and members of the Mayoral Committee, the City Manager Lungelo Mbandazayo, the members of the City’s executive management, for all the work you have put into the successes we have achieved together.   

These five years have been, without a doubt, the most rewarding chapter of my working life, and I will say it again: it is the singular honour of my life to serve as Mayor of this great city. 

Leading this team, and being so closely involved in the plans and projects that are changing the trajectory of this great city and the lives of its residents for the better, is a joy and privilege – one that I will never take for granted. 

Of course, there is no effort without error, and that has been true in this journey too. But nothing that is truly worth doing is ever easy, otherwise it would’ve been done already.  

And being able to look back at the past five years and see the undeniable arc of Cape Town towards becoming a true City of Hope for all its people – is very special and rewarding.  

Madam Speaker, 

Five years ago we set out on this journey with a clear higher purpose, that we would turn Cape Town into a beacon of hope for South Africa, a City of Hope for all who live here.  

Emerging from the dark winter of Covid, and with so many fellow South Africans falling into despair about our country and its prospects, we set out to show that we need not despair or give up hope.   

That we could still build success.   

And that the country dreamed of by the founders of our democracy is still possible.   

We wanted to prove a simple point: that progress is possible, and that problems can be solved.   

We wanted to be a city that aims higher, that lifts it sights, raises its ambitions, and dares to think differently.   

From my home in Edgemead I can see the Tygerberg hills. When I look at those hills, I can’t help but have my eye drawn to the top of them, especially in the morning when the sun rises over their crest to start the day.  

It’s one thing to look at the summit and admire how lovely it is. Many in politics speak of the summit as if it can be reached just by talking about it.  

But the work of actually reaching the summit entails a steady and determined climb upwards.  

Many people talk in grand terms of the country we all want.  

A far fewer number actually get busy building the country we all want.  

We choose to be those builders.  

We knew that this idea of a City of Hope that serves as a beacon for the country – a place of growth and opportunity and dignity and safety – was only attainable if we did the hard work, and put in the investment.  

These five years, we have delivered a level of investment never before seen in Cape Town, or any other South African city. 

We vowed that Cape Town would not follow the path of collapse and decline. That path is now sadly quite crowded.   

We said we would build, replace and maintain infrastructure here at the scale and pace needed to guarantee Cape Town’s future success. 

The result of this investment is evident across every community and ward of the city, where we are building on a scale not seen before in South Africa.  

It is hard to visit a single part of the city today and not see one project or another underway, bringing better services and greater dignity to more people.  

This investment is about much more than the physical pipes and roads and public facilities we’re building. 

When we invest, we signal confidence and a growing economy. That inspires other people to invest where they see a long-term future. 

The Western Cape economy, with Cape Town at it’s heart, has grown faster than the rest of South Africa’s economy. There is a sense of progress here, and of certainty about the future.  

We understand a simple but powerful truth: that good government underpins investment, investment underpins economic growth, and economic growth lifts people out of poverty.   

If there is one sign of progress that shines brighter than them all, it is this: Over the five years of this local government term, Cape Town has added 418,000 new jobs.  

Almost 50% of all jobs added across all eight metros since the start of this term of office were here in Cape Town. 

That 418 000 new jobs is more than the three Gauteng metros and the City of eThekwini combined.  

Think about that for a second. One metro added more jobs since 2021 than Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and eThekwini put together.   

In Cape Town, the broad unemployment rate is a full 11 percentage points lower than the next best metro.   

That doesn’t mean things are perfect here – certainly not.   

But the simple fact is that Capetonians have a far better chance of finding work, and remain far more hopeful of finding work, than anywhere else in South Africa.  

All of those are jobs that are created by businesses, entrepreneurs and micro-enterprises in a robust and healthy economy.  

In Cape Town we do not view the private sector with suspicion, or ambition as something to be spurned. We want a thriving economy with thousands more successful entrepreneurs, because that means many more people in work.  

This is such a big part of being a City of Hope – the belief that you will be able to find work and take care of the family – and it is so encouraging to see the jobs results over the full term of office. It is the strongest indicator that Cape Town is moving in the right direction. 

And let me say, we are only getting started.   

To every Capetonian who still suffers the indignity and deprivation of poverty, we will not stop in our effort to grow this economy faster so that your burdens may be eased.  

Colleagues, 

If there is one word that aptly describes these past five years, it is “building”.  

We have spent this term of office constructing so many aspects of the Cape Town of the future – our water and sanitation infrastructure, our bus routes, our electricity grid, our roads, and our public facilities like sports grounds, pools and libraries.  

We did this because we know that all of these investments mean something in real, human terms. Better infrastructure means better services, means more dignity for more people.   

All of these projects have been vital for a city committed to care and dignity.  

You may recall on the very first day of this term of office, nearly 5 years ago, I went to Khayelitsha and to Phoenix. I took our Water and Sanitation department with me, and I said clearly that “it is not possible for us to restore hope and dignity to communities while sewers are overflowing in some parts of the city.” 

I said that on day one, and since then we have worked with devotion and focus on fixing and upgrading our sewer network across the city.  

By now we all know the records we have broken in the hundreds of kilometres of ageing sewer pipe that we replaced and upgraded across the metro.   

Few projects have a greater and more immediate impact on the dignity of residents, and few projects have consumed more of our government’s time, resources and effort.  

In that first year, we had over 300 pump station failures. In this last year, we have had just 102. That’s a two-thirds reduction. 

And it is so encouraging and affirming of our work to see that we have brought down sewer spills across Cape Town by a third in this term of office. 

The progress we have already demonstrated stands as testament to our relentless drive these past five years to bring dependable services and dignified living conditions to more Capetonians. 

And just like in our jobs progress, let me say that while we have achieved much, we have much still to do. We will not stop fixing our sewers, upgrading our pump stations, installing lockable manhole covers and doing all we can until we see this number come all the way down.  

We do not believe any resident in Cape Town should live with frequent blockages and spills. They must be the exception, never the norm. We won’t stop until we get there. 

Madam Speaker,   

For us to take Cape Town on this journey of hope, we did not merely go from day to day with no plan. We had the boldness to imagine the future we wanted, and then we got to work building it. 

We imagined a Cape Town with reliable, sustainable and affordable electricity for all.  

So we reduced our reliance on Eskom by buying more than 200 MW of our own power from independent producers.  

Yesterday the Minister of Energy confirmed that Eskom has raised electricity prices 907% since 2007, while inflation has risen 150% over the same time.  

This underscores how important it is that we continue to pursue our own energy independence, so that we can protect customers from more of these increases in future.   

Then we imagined Cape Town as the easiest place on the entire African continent for entrepreneurs to build businesses and employ people. 

So we built a real tracking dashboard to hold ourselves publicly accountable for actually cutting red tape.  

We imagined our city with hundreds more metro police officers and resources to help make Capetonians safer.  

We didn’t stop at hundreds - we trained and deployed 1380 new law enforcement and metro police officers in every neighbourhood in the city.  

We imagined a city with a booming construction industry that provides thousands of new homes to Capetonians. 

So we delivered more state-subsidised housing than any other metro, at 12 400 homes in five years.   

We ramped up our release of City-owned land for the development of affordable rental housing in well-located parts of the city, with more sites released these past five years than in the decade before. 

We simplified the affordable housing process and created a more building-friendly environment. 

We did things no one else has done before - passing important guidelines on the discounting of land, discounted utility bills for tenants of affordable rental homes, we passed the Municipal Planning bylaw amendment to make it easier to build small-scale rental units, and we established an incentive fund for micro developers. 

We imagined a Cape Town with a functioning and integrated public transport system, where modern trains run like major arteries through our city, while bus routes link with the rail system to form the veins that reach every community across the city. 

So we built an incredible continuous piece of civil engineering that stretches all the way from Claremont to the very furthest points of Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha – the Cape Flats expansion of our MyCiti bus service. 

And we argued relentlessly for the devolution of the passenger rail system until at last earlier this year it was put in writing that devolution will happen, the question now only being ‘when’ and not ‘if’.  

We imagined a city able to manage the complex and sensitive issue of homelessness with care and respect.  

So we have grown shelter beds to over 1 300 in Cape Town by expanding our City-run Safe Spaces, including the new 300-bed Ebenezer facility, and by supporting NGO-run shelters to expand as well. We are doing what no other city in South Africa is even trying to do in building and running shelters.   

Now, nearly all of the tented encampments are gone, the few which remain are in the final stages of court processes, and every single person affected has been offered dignified and caring alternative accommodation.   

We imagined a city in which every resident no matter where they live has access to well-maintained community facilities.  

So we set about repairing those that were broken. Now all of our swimming pools are open, well cared for, and provide safe and fun spaces for residents and especially children to enjoy themselves.   

And we’ve delivered many beautiful sports facilities, including the new athletics track at the Wesfleur Stadium, at the Blue Downs Stadium, at The Greens sports ground in Manenberg, at the Fisantekraal Sports Ground,  at the Bishop Lavis Sports Ground and at Mandela Park in Khayelitsha.  

We imagined a cleaner city, where we all take pride in the place where we live, where we pick up litter, clean up communities, and do not sit by and watch our vleis descend into permanent toxic pollution.  

So we set about cleaning up, with better waste services in informal communities, dozens of new waste traps on all our rivers, and a vlei clean-up programme that is delivering real progress.  

You see, friends, fellow Capetonians, we have not just imagined the city we want, we have built it, we are building it, and we will keep building it.  

We are going to buy 700MW of independent power in Cape Town over time.  

Why?  

Because families cannot be expected to absorb endless Eskom price increases forever. We must end our reliance on expensive Eskom power so we can make electricity more affordable again. 

We are going to be even more ruthless in slashing red tape so that we can create hundreds of thousands more new jobs. 

Why?  

Because nothing provides a sense of dignity, purpose and pride like gainful employment.  

And because if we have brought unemployment down 6 percentage points in 5 years, then we can do that again and more.   

We are going to build South Africa’s first metro police detective branch.  

Why?   

Because we know that devolving investigative powers to metro police is a prerequisite for beating violent crime.   

We are going to look for every way to make it easier to build new affordable homes in Cape Town, and we’ll carry on releasing even more city-owned land.   

Why?  

Because we still have a long way to go to right the injustice of apartheid spatial planning in our City – and because we know that providing private title and ownership to our poorest communities holds the key to achieving true economic freedom. 

My fellow Capetonians, 

On this our last gathering together in this term of office, we truly have much to feel proud of.   

We have raised Cape Town’s ambition.  

We have left the city in a better position than we found it.  

We have demonstrated to the rest of the country what a working city looks like.   

We have smashed records for investing in everything that makes cities work for all.   

We have welcomed the world to our shores and put Cape Town in its rightful place among the great cities of the world.   

Our purpose was to turn Cape Town into a beacon of hope for South Africa.   

Now Cape Town is that beacon of hope and progress in our country.  

Here in our sandy Cape soil we have planted a flag for the very best that South Africa can be.  

Now many other cities across South Africa stand at the precipice of great and exciting change. And when that change comes, as we know it will, those cities will not start from a blank page.  

They will start with the blueprint for hope that we have drawn together here.   

We have done all this motivated only by a deep and abiding love for the people of this city and of this country.   

We are inspired every day by the resilience, talent and passion of the people of Cape Town.  

And we are only getting started.   

There is more to do, further to climb, higher to strive, for the summit is not yet reached.   

And so I ask Capetonians to renew our mandate, so that together we may continue the good work we have begun, and take Cape Town forward for everyone who lives in this great city.  

Thank you.