Main Reef Road closure hurting businesses
Main Reef Road has been closed for over two years, and it's starting to hurt more and more businesses.
There is no clear indication as to when Main Reef Road will be functional again.
The road, a main thoroughfare to Brakpan, was closed in November 2020 to repair damage caused by illegal mining activity. The road was diverted to a back road, which is bordered on both sides by the Plastic City informal settlement.
It has caused motorists to use alternative routes in and out of Brakpan.
City of Ekurhuleni spokesperson Zweli Dlamini told the Brakpan Herald in April that since the temporary road closure, illegal mining activities increased exponentially and the road has since become irreparable from a maintenance perspective.
“The road now needs to be budgeted for reconstruction as extensive work needs to be done before the road can be reopened,” he said.
No timeframe was given for this process.
This road closure has caused many businesses in the area headaches since traffic in the area has greatly decreased.
Some businesses are even concerned that if the road should remain closed for another two years, their businesses will have to close.
The Rock Raceway is paying R450 an hour to run generators to keep going. Caltex Anzac is spending an extra R35 000 a month on diesel during load-shedding, while still paying full electricity rates.
The biggest problem for businesses, however, is traffic, or rather the lack thereof. Eleanor Dasrath, the owner of Caltex Anzac, said that they had traffic coming from Springs, Boksburg, Benoni, Nigel and Heidelberg, but with Main Reef Road closed everyone is getting comfortable driving other routes.
Now they struggle to break even, and Eleanor has had to cut her staff just to keep the doors open.
“The business suffered when Snake Road closed, but now it’s suffering again with Main Reef Road closed. It used to be the busiest road, now it’s completely quiet,” Eleanor said.
Millicent Mahoa, the manager for Caltex Anzac, said: “We used to have people from Benoni, Daveyton, the police came especially for the food, now they don’t want to brave driving through the informal settlement.”
The Royal Oak Country Club also had to lay off workers to stay afloat. An employee told the Herald that the parking lot used to be full of up to 50 cars on weekends, but now they’re lucky to get 10. “If all the businesses in Brakpan close it’s going to be a ghost town,” the employee said.
On top of that, the golf course has to close earlier before dark to keep players safe from criminals.
Tim Stephens, the owner of The Rock Raceway, said they’ve tried everything to get the road fixed. They even put in a tender to fix the road but reportedly were denied because their quote was allegedly deemed too low.
Residents have also put in their own money to pay lawyers to get an eviction order for Plastic City, but it was wasted.
“We go to the municipality, but every time we get somewhere, there are new people and we have to start from scratch,” Tim said. “One thing I know about Brakpan is that it’s a town that stands together, but people are getting tired of the struggles.”
Tim hasn’t seen a decline in business, but he has seen a great decline in people coming to enjoy the races.
“If we could get that road open, things would get going,” he said.
