Protest shuts down part of Cape Town's N2
18 June 2018
The N2 before Mew Way towards Cape Town was closed after protesters placed a burning barricade on the road on Tuesday morning, resulting in the road being closed to traffic, the province's traffic chief Kenny Africa said.
"Tyres burning on freeway. Road closed direction Cape Town. SAPS on scene (sic)," said Africa in an urgent message to alert commuters.
The road was reopened shortly before 09:00, but by then traffic had gridlocked in the area.
The reason for the protest was not yet known.
Among those stuck was Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations spokesperson Besuthu Ndungane, who was trying to race to the scene of a shooting at the Joe Slovo taxi rank in Milnerton, where four people were injured.
He said that even the alternate routes set up for commuters were backed up and he was struggling to get out of Khayelitsha.
Omuramba Road southbound was closed between Racecourse Road and Freedom Way around the shooting incident, said Africa.
On Tuesday City of Cape Town member of the mayoral committee for safety JP Smith expressed concern over the effect protests and "land invasions" were having on regular law enforcement.
"This means fewer resources to police other priorities like crime prevention, by-law enforcement and illegal dumping and results in a disservice to the many communities who are deprived of an enforcement presence; not to mention the thousands of commuters and communities who are inconvenienced and put at risk by the often violent protests.
"The City continues to work closely with the South African Police Service and other role players to manage the situation. We hope that the multi-agency priority committee on protest action that has since been established will assist to further bolster our collective efforts."
In May, Smith said there had been a 73% spike in protests around Cape Town. There were 145 protests in the first four and a half months of 2018, compared with 84 during the same period in 2017.
