The City of Cape Town just released the draft 2050 long-term plan detailing the goals and actions that the city hopes to achieve in the coming years. The document is out and available for public comment here.

The City’s strategic planning unit (SPU) says, “We want Cape Town to stand out as a beacon of resilience, innovation and progress – proof that with vision, collaboration and sustained investment, a city can truly transform lives and contribute significantly towards overall South African success and prosperity.”

Looking inside the document, there is a focus on circular economic practices and infrastructure investment that seeks to directly answer some of the city’s concerns over the next 25 years.

Overarching goals

CoCT outlines the overarching goals of the long-term plan as follows:

Economy

• Decrease the unemployment rate in Cape Town to 13,9% by 2050
• Increase GDP by 120% by 2050.

Ease of business

•  By 2050, 60% of land use applications will be approved within 30 days
• By 2050, connecting to the electricity network will take less than 20 days.

Transport

• By 2050, over 75% of trips will be made by public transport, walking and cycling.
• In 2050, no residents will spend more than 10% of their monthly disposable income on transport.
• Achieve a freight rail mode share of 50% by 2050.

Housing

• Increase housing opportunities to 50 000 per annum by 2050.

Infrastructure and services

• 70% of waste diverted from landfills by 2050.
• 25% of water provided from alternative sources (other than surface water) by 2040.
• Reduce and maintain non-revenue water losses to below 20% of water supplied by 2035.

Capable state

• 85% of households will live in formally rated properties by 2050.

Biodiversity

• Plant 100 000 trees in Cape Town by 2050.
• Conserve 25% of Cape Town’s total land area under our ‘conservation estate’ of protected areas by 2050.

Health

• By 2050, the City will maintain clean air for all by protecting residents against harmful pollutants through maintaining particulate matter within the World Health Organisation guidelines.
• By 2050, 99% of samples will have biological indicators of recreational water quality within the acceptable range.
• A decrease in the maternal mortality in the facility ratio to 45 per 100 000 by 2050.

Safety

• Decrease the murder rate to under 25 murders per 100k population per annum by 2050.
• Increase perceptions of safety to 60% of residents feeling safe walking alone at night and 90% feeling safe walking alone during the day by 2050.

A closer look at CoCT’s infrastructure goals reveals that the city will have to address the legacy of apartheid era city planning, eliminating unequal access to infrastructure and ensuring that basic services are met for everyone.

Water

As the city’s population is projected to increase by an upper limit of 2.9 million people, basic water services will need to grow alongside this figure. The plan estimates that the city will have to add 300 million litres (ℓ) of additional supply per day by 2030, and a further 250 million ℓ of capacity per day until 2040, while saving 70 million ℓ per day through demand management.

Climate resilience is also on the agenda, as Cape Town experienced Day Zero, the city understands better than most the impact of low to no water. Due to the effects of climate change and an expected decrease in run-off to dams in the Western Cape Water Supply System, the City will need to diversify Cape Town’s water sources significantly, from 96% reliance on surface water in 2020 to 75% by 2040.

The increase in bulk water will directly impact reticulation and wastewater. As more water enters the supply, the more water moves around, and thus, more wastewater will need to be treated.

A project that highlights this commitment is the plan for a scalable and rainfall-independent desalination plant. This will allow the city to use an alternate supply when needed, but they report that they are still looking into the social and environmental impacts of such a plant.

The CoCT is also planning to roll out an automated meter infrastructure that will result in 24 24-hour consumption visibility. The plan sees 600 000 units by 2037 to drive water sustainability within the city.

Three of the city’s wastewater treatment plants, Athlone 2A, Potsdam, and Macassar, will be upgraded by 2035, resulting in an additional 170 megalitres per day (M170 ℓ/d) capacity. This ensures that the city’s sanitation systems can keep pace with demand.

Energy

The plan takes the current grid into account, stating that it will need to rely on the national grid in the short-to-medium term while moving away, but not completely, in the medium-to-long term. This will be achieved by Cape Town’s bullish relationship with private sector involvement. The city says, “Grid services will become the core of the City’s electricity utility service offering as a basis for a competitive energy market, where multiple actors can generate, consume, store and manage electricity effectively and safely.”

CoCT does say that they would need to manage the financial risks associated with municipal electricity, and while the private sector will play an increased role in energy, the city will have to maintain its ability to provide subsidised electricity to vulnerable areas while continuing their goal of electrifying informal settlements.

This plan is in line with an overview of Cape Town’s phased energy strategy

• Short term (by 2026): Increase capabilities to mitigate up to four stages of load shedding.
• Medium term (by 2031): Reforms implemented to maintain a financially sustainable electricity utility with enhanced operations and asset management practices.
• Long term (by 2050): Transforming the energy system to be carbon-neutral

These goals are accompanied by significant infrastructure investments, such as the planned R800 million solar PV plant with battery storage capable of yielding up to 70 Megawatts of renewable energy and providing up to a full stage of loadshedding protection.

This project is another critical step in achieving their vision of decreased Eskom reliance and a load-shedding-free Cape Town. The feasibility study for the Paardevlei plant is complete, and the project is progressing through the design stages of the project lifecycle. Full commissioning and operation of the plant are estimated for early 2029, subject to the necessary governance processes and budget approvals.

Waste

The CoCT will continue implementing circular practices to decrease waste generation, valorise different waste streams to divert from landfilling, and stimulate local economic growth. While the focus is on waste minimisation, there is a need to increase landfill capacity due to the expected population growth. The city plans for an increase in ‘actors’ within the waste sector and is driving the viability of waste-to-energy to ensure energy independence of these waste facilities.

The City is actively investigating the option for the procurement of land for a new regional landfill site. This will likely be located within the boundaries of the metro, but waste from neighbouring municipalities will also be accepted on a tariff basis. Once the land and relevant authorisations have been successfully procured, the CoCT will ensure that the facility is built as a matter of critical priority. The mechanism for this, which could include private -sector involvement, is still to be determined. Importantly, the new landfill site will include waste-to-energy generation. In the immediate term, the city’s current landfill capacity constraints will be mitigated by building additional cells at existing landfills.

These basic services will serve as a base for other infrastructure and economic growth strategies, including rail and ports. One of the key mechanisms that Cape Town is using for this plan is increased public-private partnerships, which will funnel funding into key projects.

This is only a draft plan, and the CoCT, in line with section 17 of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act, Act 32 of 2000, encourages public comments to the municipality, which you can do here.