The City of Cape Town has announced the N2 Edge Safety Project, which will oversee the bolstering of security along the N2 route while investing in cultural aspects for communities alongside the route.
Specifically, the N2 Edge Safety Project aims to develop new pedestrian crossings, improved lighting and access control, safety barriers for recreational purposes, safer grazing practices, reduced scope for illegal dumping, and other opportunities arising from the coming engagements with communities along the N2.
Additionally, the project aims to invest in community aspects such as R46 million being earmarked for swimming pool upgrades and R11 million for the Strandfontein Pavilion.
Speaking to VOC News, the Mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis, explains that the project was in development since he assumed the role as Mayor of Cape Town, identifying the N2 route as notorious for criminality that had to be dealt with.
“It’s actually something I started working on since I became mayor four years ago. Because one of the biggest complaints we get, and still get, is around safety on the N2, with many residents saying they don’t feel safe there. It is also the single biggest hotspot for pedestrian deaths; there is no other road in the whole city where pedestrians die like on the N2,” stated the mayor.
Hill-Lewis furthers that the additional investment into surrounding communities came about due to witnessing the need in areas parallel to the N2, which includes better safeguarding against criminal elements and the upliftment of conditions for the betterment of local denizens.
“If you drive along the N2, you will also see that there are a lot of other things that need to be sorted out. There is a lot of illegal sand mining that has happened there, and then there are kids that play soccer there. One of the ideas is can we make a nice soccer pitch there and make it safe for them by putting barriers to protect from traffic,” explained Hill-Lewis.
However, the ANC in the Western Cape has denounced the N2 Safety Edge Project as a senseless attempt at trying to obfuscate the poverty that exists in communities along the N2, with ANC leader in Cape Town, Ndithini Tyhido, touting the project as constructing a ‘South African Berlin Wall’.
“The ANC caucus in the City of Cape Town is quite dismayed by Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis’ insistence on a senseless erection of a South African ‘Berlin Wall’ on the N2, pushing the poorer communities or hiding them away from visitors from the Cape Town International Airport,” stated Tyhido.
Tyhido further states that the money earmarked should rather be invested into communities, such as bolstering community police forums.
“The ANC acknowledges the real threat of violent crime happening along the N2; instead of erecting a wall, invest that money in the capacity of neighbourhood watches. Have visible patrollers on stipends so the money can derive benefits for the community,” added Tyhido.
