Giyani struggles with traffic due to lack of alternative roads
Giyani faces severe traffic congestion affecting residents, businesses, and tourism, despite promises of improvement.

LIMPOPO – For over 30 years under the ANC government, motorists in the Greater Giyani Municipality (GGM) have endured the frustration of relying on a single road to access the town.
This situation has persisted despite the growing population and the increasing number of vehicles on the road, which have significantly strained the existing infrastructure.
The lack of an additional access road has led to severe traffic congestion during the Easter holiday and festive season, causing delays and inconvenience for residents, businesses, and emergency services alike. The municipality’s admiration has year after year repeatedly failed even to grade the existing gravel roads leading to town in order to provide residents with alternative access roads.
This is despite the municipality’s promises to establish access roads to help facilitate the easy flow of traffic into town. This failure not only highlights poor urban planning and inadequate service delivery but also raises concerns about the municipality’s commitment to improving the quality of life for its residents since it fails to maintain even the existing infrastructure.
The absence of progress on this matter has left many questioning whether the municipality’s leadership was prioritising the needs of the community or neglecting them altogether.
Some people even took to Facebook to highlight the challenge motorists face during the festive season after a long queue of motorists struggled to enter the town via R81 during the few days before Christmas.
“It seems like the leadership of the GGM has no foresight; they come and go without changing anything except enriching their own pockets,” wrote a frustrated Facebook user, commenting on the long traffic jams on the R81 road leading into Giyani town.
The ongoing reliance on a single road has also had broader economic implications, as businesses in Giyani are affected by delayed deliveries and reduced customer accessibility. Moreover, the difficulty in accessing the town hampers the tourists flow into Giyani and neighbouring towns.
“This situation will become even worse when the Shangoni Gate into Kruger National Park opens. Many tourists will struggle to access the park via the Shangoni Gate in Giyani if nothing changes,” commented a concerned resident, Ronald Makhubele.
When asked why the municipality was failing to provide an alternative route to the town, municipal spokesperson Steve Mavunda explained that the issue lies with jurisdiction. He stated that the municipality lacks both the authority and the money to establish alternative roads.
“That authority lies with either RAL or Sanral. We need to obtain permission from RAL to establish those roads, and it would require significant funding to construct them,” explained Mavunda.
“Regarding the issue of alternative roads, particularly the bypass roads via Ngove and Siyandhani villages, we consulted with Public Works and were informed that these roads have never been formally recognised as proper roads, even though people use them. Therefore, they would need to be redesigned entirely from scratch. With that said, it should be noted that the issue of an alternative road is a major concern for all of us.
“As a municipality, we already have designs for both of these potential alternative roads. However, the main challenge is a lack of funding. These are large-scale projects that would require substantial resources, including the construction of bridges, and the cost could potentially consume the entire municipal budget without even completing the work. Currently, our focus as a municipality is on lobbying for money to either construct these two roads ourselves or have institutions such as RAL or Sanral take on the projects. Additionally, we are actively engaging with RAL regarding the R81 road, which falls under their jurisdiction. We are urging them to expand it to a four-lane road.
“Specifically, we need RAL to expand the road from Gaza Beef to the bridge, where it would connect to the existing four-lane road leading into town. We believe this expansion will significantly ease traffic flow. We are hopeful this will happen soon because, with the anticipated opening of Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in Giyani soon, traffic congestion is expected to worsen, which could hurt our local economy. This places immense pressure on us to expedite these developments,” he said.
Sanral media relations manager, Lwando Mahlasela, told the Herald that the department had no plans for alternative access roads in Giyani but would continue to assess the situation to see if there was a need for an alternative road.
“Please note that there are currently no plans to construct a bypass or alternative access road in the town. However, Sanral has recently included the second phase of the R81 project, which runs from Giyani to Malamulele. Working together with the municipality, Sanral will continue to assess the state of the road network in and around Giyani to determine the need for a ring road around town,” said Mahlasela, without confirming if the municipality has requested an alternative road or not.