Cape Town hosted the first historic meeting of Metro Mayors. This historic event welcomed Mayors from all eight Metros in South Africa i.e. Cape Town, Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Bay, Ethekwini, Buffalo City, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Mangaung.
The meeting was held along with the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) who convened in Cape Town on August 27, 2025 to discuss issues which affect metro governance, municipal autonomy, and the devolution of powers.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said that Cape Town is proud to host this first meeting, and he hopes that this will become a more regular engagement. It has always surprised him that Metro Mayors don’t interact in a more coordinated way on issues that affect major cities of South Africa.
Lewis expressed that he was pleased that the President of SALGA has agreed to convene the meeting when he proposed it. He said that together these eight cities represent 55% of population of South Africa and 70% of economy of South Africa.
For Mayor Lewis it is important that they realise to have a powerful and important voice. They speak together about things which impact them all. It is important that they all know that they are not merely local branches of a national head office.
The Constitution imbues them with independent powers and functions, as they are more willing to assert these and resist attempts at over-control.
The issues were discussed and need to push back against constant efforts by the national government to impose ever-more legislation and regulation on local governments, considering their failure of metro funding to keep up with rapid city population growth.
Cape Town Mayor emphasised the necessity to devolve additional powers to metros, especially the additional policing powers and the management of passenger rail.
SALGA highlighted the scale of investment which is required in cities of South Africa. The association noted that metros should collectively spend around R70 billion, every year on capital projects, over the next decade to keep up with growth and infrastructure demand.
The City of Cape Town strongly supports this call and is already committed to meeting the level of investment through its own ambitious capital investment programme. This was an important start, with a packed agenda. There is much more to discuss, and they are looking forward to becoming more regular engagement.