The ribbon has been cut, the speeches have ben made, and Republic Road in Ferndale is finally open again.

However, behind the fanfare of last week’s reopening ceremony lies a story of bureaucratic failure, contractor non-payment, and a city that needed public embarrassment before it would act.

Read more: Ribbon cutting as Republic Road reopens after major repairs

The road’s troubles began in July 2024, when a pipe burst forced Johannesburg Water to excavate large sections of one of Randburg’s busiest routes. The water repair was completed by August 2024, but what followed was a year of nothing. For twelve months, the gaping hole sat untouched while residents endured gridlocked traffic, faulty traffic lights, and rising crime. Local businesses haemorrhaged customers, while commuters rerouted their lives around a wound in the road that the City of Johannesburg appeared content to ignore.

It took a protest, described by those involved as a one-year anniversary birthday celebration of the repairs not having started, organised by ratepayer associations and the then-ward councillor, to finally jolt Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) into action. Shortly after, JRA announced that repairs would begin. Construction eventually started in July/August 2025, a full year after the water repair had been completed.

Ward 102 councillor Bea Campbell-Cloete, who was notably absent from last week’s ceremony, did not mince her words when asked about the timeline. “It is not acceptable at all. It is far outside the normal standard for normal road reinstatement work.”

She pointed out the glaring contradiction at the heart of the project. Once construction finally began, the actual repair work took roughly two months, with a planned completion date of October 30, 2025. The work itself was not the problem. Getting the city to start was.

Also read: Motorcyclist injured in Republic Road collision incident

Campbell-Cloete, who took over as ward councillor during the project, made multiple site visits to keep pressure on JRA, but when she visited on January 15, the site was deserted. Workers had downed tools over the December construction break, but had not returned. She requested answers from JRA, later discovering the reason for the delay: The contractor had not been paid. “At the time, the site foreman informed me that the repairs would be completed by February 20.” Rain over three consecutive days pushed that deadline again, to the end of February, and the road reopened in early March.

Campbell-Cloete was direct about what it took to get the city moving in the first place. “If it was not for the constant pressure from the DA, and an exposé from Carte Blanche, the hole would probably still be there.”

Her absence from the reopening ceremony was conspicuous. While MMC for Transport Kenny Kunene stood on the freshly tarred surface, thanking project teams and celebrating inter-departmental co-operation, the councillor who had spent months pushing for the work to happen was elsewhere. The optics were not lost on observers. This was a political photo opportunity attended by those least responsible for the delay, and skipped by the one official who had actually held the city to account.

Kunene’s remarks at the ceremony were not without merit. He acknowledged the pressure on Johannesburg’s ageing infrastructure, the funding shortfalls, and the complexity of co-ordinating between city entities. These are real challenges, but they do not explain a twelve-month gap between a pipe being fixed and a road being touched, nor do they explain a contractor left unpaid mid-project.

For residents and business owners along Republic Road, the reopening is a relief, but it is a relief that arrived far too late, and only after sustained outside pressure forced the city’s hand.

The ribbon looked good. The backstory did not.

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