Cape Town spent R1 billion on consultants in one year – a 758% increase in a decade

The City of Cape Town spent R1.002 billion on consultants in the 2025 financial year, an increase of 785% in a decade.

The city explained that this expenditure includes contracted services, such as professional and advisory services, as well as contractors.

It used consultants for repairs and maintenance programmes, outsourced administrative support and medical staff, and professional and advisory services.

“Requests for the use of consultants must be supported by the relevant executive director or senior manager,” the City of Cape Town said.

What was striking about the City of Cape Town’s consultant expenditure was the big rise over the last decade.

In the 2015 financial year, the city spent R113 million on consultants. Since then, this line item has increased rapidly.

By the 2019 financial year, the expenditure on consultants jumped to R747 million, and the next year it reached R929 million.

The 785% increase in consultant expenditure was out of step with total city expenditure, which rose by 106%.

In fact, the cost of consultants saw the highest relative escalation of any standard operational line item.

Daily Investor asked the City of Cape Town why it uses consultants and whether it is concerned about outsourcing tasks which should be done by city officials.

We also asked the city why consultants’ expenses rose by 758% over 10 years, a much faster rate than the budget increase.

The City of Cape Town did not respond by the time of publication.

Many experts question the use of consultants in the public sector

A 2023 study of 13 municipalities showed that they over-rely on consultants for service provision and for key areas.

The researchers said that the continual use of consultants in the public service, to some extent, demonstrates a problem of skills transference and containment.

“Consultants have brought about changes in how public administrations handle information and knowledge,” they said.

“When contracting out expert services, publicly owned and available information is transformed into a private commodity.”

Therefore, information that public administrators frequently use becomes an asset for private consulting firms.

This ownership results in an information advantage for consultants, which may lead to various dependencies and rent-seeking behaviour.

ActionSA has previously opposed the widespread use of consultants to perform functions that should be carried out by municipal professionals.

“The continued reliance on consultants is a damning indictment of the failure to build and retain internal capacity in local government,” ActionSA’s Matthew George said.

Last month, the DA’s Northern Cape Provincial Spokesperson on Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Fawzia Rhoda, commented on the use of consultants.

“A recent briefing by the Auditor-General confirms that 29 municipalities spent more than R180 million on consultants for financial reporting,” Rhoda said.

She added that spending on consultants appointed to do the work of salaried officials increased by 20%.

“This is a pattern of financial irresponsibility that repeats at 90% of provincial municipalities,” she said.

“While spending on consultants at municipalities increased, questions remain about the real value for money.”

Rhoda argued that consultants cannot be a panacea for the ills of poor planning, poor project management, and poor consequence management.

“Ultimately, residents bear the brunt of poor financial choices made by uncaring municipal administrations,” she said.