UPDATE: Green light given (again) for Tiffany’s robots

Tiffany’s shopping centre in Salt Rock has once again been given the go-ahead to install long-awaited robots at its entrance – but the centre says they are still in the dark on the matter.

During the presentation of the KwaDukuza municipality 2017/2018 annual report, Mayor Ricardo Mthembu listed the “closure of the Tiffany’s robots crisis” as one of KDM’s highlights for the year – saying that the problem was finally put to rest in March.

“We got involved in speeding up the process by initiating communication with the two agencies responsible for the road, South African Road Agency (Sanral) and the transport department. It gives me great pleasure to announce that both departments have finally given the developer permission to erect robots at Tiffany’s intersection.”

Also read: Sanral approves traffic lights for dangerous Tiffany’s intersection at Salt Rock

For the past seven years, traffic congestion at the entrance of the centre has been a nightmare for motorists and the cause of many accidents. The issue has been a soccer ball between the provincial department of transport, KDM and Sanral.

Now Mthembu said the process has reached the final stage, with KDM’s economic development and planning business unit working on processing the developer’s application to erect the robots.

However, Tiffany’s centre manager Nicky Vorster said she could not confirm when robots would be erected as she had not yet received written confirmation from the transport department.

This is despite receiving permission from Sanral, which claimed to be the agency responsible for the road as it falls within 100 metres of the N2.

“We are ecstatic to hear the mayor’s announcement but the problem was that we were waiting for permission from the transport department which we were told we had to have before installing robots. If that has come, we look forward to receiving something in writing.”

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