Controversy over City of Cape Town's R114m N2 Edge safety project

The City of Cape Town has set aside R114 million in its adjustment budget for the N2 Edge safety project, aimed at improving safety for motorists, pedestrians and communities along a 9km stretch of the highway. The allocation has drawn sharp debate in council over priorities, delivery and effectiveness.

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the funding would go towards replacing and reinforcing a severely deteriorated security barrier along the N2, alongside a package of safety and community-focused interventions.

“Today our adjustment budget commits R114m to the N2 Edge project, which will make a positive difference to the safety of every motorist along that stretch, and reduce pedestrian fatalities,” Hill-Lewis said.

According to the City, the project will include new pedestrian crossings, improved lighting and access control, safety barriers for recreational spaces, measures to improve grazing practices, reduced scope for illegal dumping, and the stabilisation and landscaping of the road embankment.

Hill-Lewis told council the existing barrier was “completely dilapidated” and said it was unfair that “hundreds of thousands of daily users of the N2” were exposed to attacks by “a small number of criminal elements”.

The renewed focus on the N2 follows a series of violent incidents that have kept safety on the corridor in the spotlight. 

It was ignited following the murder of Nelspruit grandmother, Karin van Aardt who was killed during a smash and grab incident near Jakes Gerwel Drive in December.

Ndiyabulela Vayi, Thando Nkolongo and Yamnkela Mdunyelwa are facing charges of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances for van Aardt's murder.

Following van Aardt's murder, the city said it was planning for a security wall along the N2 around the airport to be erected, at a significant cost estimated at around R180m.

Hill-Lewis said the N2 Edge project formed part of a broader, multi-pronged safety response, alongside intensified policing.

“Safety along the N2 requires a multi-pronged response,” he said, pointing to dedicated Metro Police patrols, CCTV cameras, automatic number plate recognition technology and rapid-response coordination.

Between September 2024 and mid-January this year, City officers assisted nearly 3 000 motorists along the corridor, he said, “the overwhelming majority” for mechanical breakdowns rather than attacks.

However, the project and the wider adjustment budget were strongly criticised by Chad Davids, a GOOD Party councillor in the City of Cape Town, who questioned whether the City’s financial position was being translated into tangible improvements for residents.

“This City is financially rich on paper, administratively broken, and morally confused in its priorities,” Davids said during the council debate, arguing that while funding could be found for a wall along the N2, other projects such as clinics, housing and community facilities remained delayed.

Davids said persistent underspending on capital budgets pointed to systemic failures rather than isolated problems. “We are told budgets are ‘record-breaking’, yet clinics remain incomplete, fire stations are delayed, housing developments are stalled, roads are unfinished, and community facilities are deteriorating,” he said.

He also criticised what he described as over-recovery through electricity, water and property rates. “You cannot brag about a surplus while people are forced to choose between food and electricity,” Davids said, adding that above-inflation tariffs were pushing poorer households deeper into debt.

On safety spending, Davids questioned the effectiveness of current approaches. “Safety spending is not delivering safety,” he said, describing the N2 barrier as “a wall that does not stop crime” and arguing that it did not address underlying issues such as poverty, unemployment and spatial exclusion.

Hill-Lewis rejected the criticism, saying the City would act where other spheres of government were failing. “There is nothing that we will not do to improve the safety of Capetonians,” he told council, adding that the N2 Edge project would also improve conditions for communities living alongside the highway through additional infrastructure and engagement.

Budget documents show that R7m has been allocated in the current financial year for detailed design work on the N2 Edge project, with a further R108m planned in the 2027 financial year to fund the bulk of construction.

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