R54bn performance-based grant launched to support metro infrastructure delivery

The National Treasury has officially launched a R54-billion performance-based grant in a bid to increase investments in water, sanitation, electricity and waste infrastructure services by the country’s eight metropolitan municipalities, or metros. Known as the Metro Trading Services Reform, the performance-linked incentive aims to mobilise more than R100-billion in infrastructure investment over the coming six years, with recipient municipalities required to match the infrastructure grants with their own revenues and borrowings.