Where are the traffic cops, NPO asks, as communities patrol Nelson Mandela Bay's deadly R75

Daily Maverick

a day ago

Communities living along the R75, a national road linking Kariega and Gqeberha, have taken matters into their own hands after two accidents claimed the lives of three pupils earlier this year. The road has become increasingly dangerous due to broken traffic and street lights.
'To us, those who died here are not numbers,' says Zukile Madikane from Ikhakha le Afrika, referring to the casualties along the R75 road in Nelson Mandela Bay.
'They are real human beings. Even until today, I am still searching for someone to help with trauma counselling for a mother. She was the mother of 10-year-old twins and she saw a taxi kill her children.'
Three children died on the R75 earlier this year.
The long stretch of the R75 is rife with potholes, broken traffic lights, street lights that are out of order, pedestrians running across the road, frequent accidents, dangerous crossings and broken side barriers.
According to municipal data, the road has been the site of 166 motor vehicle accidents in which close to 2,000 people were injured between April 2024 and the end of May 2025.
Declared a national road in 2012, the R75 falls under the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral).
It serves as the primary arterial road for Algoa Park, Zwide, Zinyoka (Govan Mbeki), Veeplaas, Missionvale, New Brighton, KwaDwesi, KwaDwesi Extension, KwaMagxaki, Joe Slovo and Despatch – acting as the public transport link between both ends, and runs to Kariega.
Out of desperation, communities living along the road have now organised patrol groups to help children cross safely. There is no safe place for pedestrians to cross the road – the traffic lights are all out of order. Children who need to get to school, however, have no choice.
Patrols
Madikane said they had now begun patrolling the R75, using posters to warn motorists to slow down. Patrollers also help children to cross the road safely.
'We have been asking for traffic officials to be here in peak hours, but we are told there is no budget. The same people tell us we are breaking the law, but what else can we do?' he said.
He said it was his biggest wish that dedicated community patrollers would be paid from the Public Works Programme or even sponsored by a private company to ensure that pedestrians could cross the road safely.
'We look at that working robot at the Perseverance side, but we know the businesses paid for it,' he said.
'Road accidents due to non-functional traffic lights and streetlights claim too many learners' lives,' Madikane said.
Twins Khayone and Khangeyone Makonza died in March while crossing the road to Ntyatyambo Primary School.
'A week earlier, 10km away near the Zwide Cemetery, a speeding car hit and killed 11-year-old Renoko Maswanganyi from Cebelihle Lower Primary School in Ezinyoka while on her way to school,' Madikane said.
Also in March, an unidentified woman travelling between Zwide and Rholihlahla was run over and killed by a car that did not stop. Information about the car is unavailable as it was dark, Madikane said.
Streetlights on this road had been out of order for years, he said.
'The fact that so many traffic lights are not operational for a long period of time in residential areas in the Nelson Mandela Metro Municipality, in particular in the school vicinities, has a great impact,' he said.
'While we are waiting for the municipality to restore the streetlights, traffic lights, and fix road infrastructure, we plead with Mayor Babalwa Lobishe and her council members to show leadership by stopping this carnage. The intermediate intervention we envisage is the deployment of traffic personnel who will be visible in these accident hotspots at least before school starts and after school hours.'
Shortage of officers
He said that while they had asked for the presence of traffic officials, they were told there was a shortage of officers.
Madikane said their community safety patrollers escorted vulnerable people home so they would not be robbed on the R75 at night.
'During the day, some volunteers are deployed to chaperone groups of learners to their respective schools in the morning and afternoon. Ikhaka Le Afrika has volunteers taking care of the safety of learners from Garrett Higher Primary and Ikwezi Lomso High schools. These are the same volunteers that the metro can train and use to man these identified hotspots in the absence of traffic personnel,' he said.
Thozamile Jokwana, regional chairman of the National Association of School Governing Bodies, also called for an urgent intervention on the R75.
'Get people to safeguard the learners who cross these dangerous roads if you cannot bring back or fix the broken traffic lights in time,' he said.
Sanral
Sanral spokesperson Lwando Mahlasela said the operation and maintenance of traffic signals and street lighting rested with the Nelson Mandela Bay metro.
'Admittedly, the ongoing occurrences of theft and vandalism of electrical infrastructure along the road networks is a massive challenge across the entire metro. Although the operation and maintenance of traffic signals and street lighting rests with the metro, Sanral is currently supporting and partnering with the NMBM (Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality) with an alternative approach which will pilot the infrastructure hardening, CCTV surveillance and monitoring, law enforcement activation and armed security response to the traffic signals incidents along the R75,' Mahlasela said.
'The first traffic signal pilot at R75/Mati Road intersection is currently under design development. It is progressing well, and it will be implemented soon after the Transport Management Centre (TMC) becomes operational, which is planned for July 2025. The pilot primarily relies on the real-time surveillance, monitoring and response that the TMC will provide,' he said.
'With reference to the crashes along the R75 recently, Sanral has requested available crash records from NMBM and law enforcement departments and has started with a road safety review to determine the probable causes and contributory factors. Depending on the review, Sanral and relevant role players will then have to consider whether engineering, enforcement and education of (road users) interventions can be considered,' Mahlasela said.
He said Sanral had conducted two meetings with local role players.
'As part of the Freeway Management System project, the team has engaged with senior representatives of NMBM Safety and Security, and Energy and Electrical departments, as well as the South African Police Services (SAPS) to present and request input on the theft and vandalism provisions currently being proposed. The first meeting received constructive inputs, which will be incorporated into the final proposals and operating procedures.
'A subsequent site visit took place on Tuesday, 13 May 2025, to inspect some high-risk locations along the R75 Section. The main objective of the meeting was to observe the current operations, risks and to collectively consider options, holistically and immediately, in the medium and long term to address the prevailing challenges which resulted from the theft and vandalism of infrastructure,' Mahlasela said.
He said the site visit was attended by most of the relevant local role players, including the SAPS, various NMBM departments, including the traffic and fire departments, the Eastern Cape Department of Transport, Sanral and community-based representatives.
'The key issues were identified on site and solutions proposed including, but not limited to, involvement of the community (traffic wardens), training and awareness campaigns, ongoing targeted traffic law enforcement, reinstatement of traffic signals at three high priority locations and road safety engineering interventions, which include road signage, road markings, traffic calming, and so on. These proposals are currently being considered and formalised, and a way forward with timeframes will be confirmed in a meeting to be scheduled shortly,' Mahlasela said.
Madikane said the robots and streetlights had been dysfunctional 'even before the Covid-19 pandemic'.
He said they had campaigned for speed bumps on the road, but were told that this wouldn't work because it was an important road for emergency vehicles. Madikane said that since the road now ran through a mainly residential area, the speed limit should be decreased to 60km/h.
'But the least the municipality can do is to send us traffic officers or help us to train the community patrollers,' he said.
He said he understood that communities, too, needed awareness campaigns about road safety, adding that they were willing to do that to help address the situation.
'They think they have consulted the communities when they have talked to the councillor, but it is not true.
'Sadly, this road has become all about politicking and campaigning,' he said.