{"id":92662,"date":"2025-11-10T17:33:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T17:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africas-cities-get-r16-billion-world-bank-lifeline"},"modified":"2025-11-10T17:41:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T17:41:27","slug":"south-africas-cities-get-r16-billion-world-bank-lifeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africas-cities-get-r16-billion-world-bank-lifeline","title":{"rendered":"South Africa\u2019s cities get R16 billion World Bank lifeline"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The World Bank approved a $925 million (R15.9 billion) loan for South Africa to support a six-year program costing three times that amount, as the country seeks to revive its major cities.<\/p>\n

The loan, from the World\u2019s Bank\u2019s International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, will help South Africa\u2019s National Treasury reward cities that meet operational and financial performance targets for urban services with additional funding. It\u2019s the first program-for-results operation to be implemented by the lender in South Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe operation is designed to incentivize real performance improvements, accountability and institutional reforms,\u201d Satu Kahkonen, the World\u2019s Bank\u2019s division director for South Africa said in a statement on Monday.<\/p>\n

The government is setting up the so-called Metro Services Trading Program as it faces increasing pressure from citizens to improve services amid recurrent breakdowns of urban power-transmission grids, regular water outages and lax collection of refuse.<\/p>\n

In elections last year, the African National Congress lost its outright majority for the first time since the advent of democracy in 1994 partly because of anger over poor service delivery.<\/p>\n

The program will cover eight cities that generate 85% of South Africa\u2019s economic output and are home to more than a third of its 63 million people. It aims to improve water and electricity supply, as well as waste collection.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also intended to help cities better prepare for climate shocks and position them for partnerships with private companies in delivering services.<\/p>\n

In Johannesburg, the country\u2019s biggest city, outages have left swaths of the city without power for days at a time and the municipality has been beset by a series of financial scandals.<\/p>\n

The loan marks a deepening of ties between the World Bank and South Africa, which before the pandemic had been reluctant to borrow from multilateral lenders. Since early 2022, it has secured three sovereign loans from the lender totaling about $3 billion.<\/p>\n

The World Bank has implemented program-for-results initiatives, often on a smaller scale, in countries such as Turkey, China, and India.<\/p>\n

In addition to Johannesburg, the program will include Cape Town and the municipalities overseeing Durban, the country\u2019s third-largest city, and Pretoria, the capital.<\/p>\n

Ekurhuleni \u2014 an industrial hub of more than three million people east of Johannesburg \u2014 is also part of the program, along with the municipalities that run East London, Bloemfontein, and Gqeberha.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. The World Bank approved a $925 million (R15.9 billion) loan for South Africa to support a six-year program costing three times that amount, as the country seeks to revive its major cities. The loan, from the World\u2019s Bank\u2019s International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, will help South Africa\u2019s National Treasury reward cities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":92661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-92662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nSouth Africa\u2019s cities get R16 billion World Bank lifeline - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The World Bank approved a $925 million (R15.9 billion) loan for South Africa to support a six-year program costing three ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africas-cities-get-r16-billion-world-bank-lifeline\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"South Africa\u2019s cities get R16 billion World Bank lifeline\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The World Bank approved a $925 million (R15.9 billion) loan for South Africa to support a six-year program costing three ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africas-cities-get-r16-billion-world-bank-lifeline\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-10T17:33:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-10T17:41:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/11\/sm_1762783707.351123.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africas-cities-get-r16-billion-world-bank-lifeline#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africas-cities-get-r16-billion-world-bank-lifeline\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"South Africa\u2019s cities get R16 billion World Bank lifeline\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-10T17:33:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-10T17:41:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africas-cities-get-r16-billion-world-bank-lifeline\"},\"wordCount\":410,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africas-cities-get-r16-billion-world-bank-lifeline#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/11\/sm_1762783707.351123.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africas-cities-get-r16-billion-world-bank-lifeline#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africas-cities-get-r16-billion-world-bank-lifeline\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africas-cities-get-r16-billion-world-bank-lifeline\",\"name\":\"South Africa\u2019s cities get R16 billion World Bank lifeline - 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