The wall dividing Cape Town

Mayor of the City of Cape Town Geordin Hill-Lewis recently announced plans to spend R114 million to build a wall along the city’s notorious N2 highway, a move that has divided experts and political parties.

The N2 highway has become a hotspot for crime and has been dubbed the “hell run” for the number of attacks and murders on the highway, which runs between Cape Town International Airport and the city centre. 

Criminals throw rocks from bridges or the roadside to smash windshields and force cars to stop, and exploit traffic congestion to rob motorists.

Spikes or debris are sometimes placed on the road to cause punctures, which the criminals use to stop cars and ambush those in the vehicle.

“It is not fair that a small number of criminal elements are impacting the safety of hundreds of thousands of daily users of the N2,” said Hill-Lewis. 

The plan is to build a “security barrier” along the 9km stretch of highway, which will divide the road from communities living alongside it, which is deemed a high-crime area. 

The R114 million project will further include new pedestrian crossings, improved lighting and access control, safety barriers for recreation spaces, safer grazing practices, and reduced scope for illegal dumping.

Hill-Lewis said that the project will coincide with the city’s plans to further increase security with 40 new metro cops deployed to the stretch of road, additional CCTV cameras, automated number plate recognition and digital coordination for rapid response. 

However, the announcement has caused backlash from some organisations and political parties. 

‘Apartheid-style wall’

The South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (SANRAL) said that it has not been engaged by the city on the proposed security wall.

“The N2 still falls under three different road authority jurisdictions. Although this can be confusing, road authority jurisdictions are crucial for establishing clear responsibility for the planning, construction, maintenance and safety of road users and infrastructure,” SANRAL said. 

The GOOD Party, additionally, said that building a wall to separate the highway from the township communities is a “continuation of racist spatial logic” that was “designed under apartheid.”

GOOD Cape Town Councillor Siyabulela Mamkeli said that this is a “physical barrier intended to hide poverty from tourists travelling between the Cape Town CBD and Cape Town International Airport.”

This is “while leaving residents trapped in unsafe conditions with inadequate services,” he added. 

The party advocates instead for the deployment of law enforcement officers that would benefit the community as well as motorists. 

The African National Congress (ANC) provincial spokesperson, Akhona Jonginamba, told the Cape Argus that the party was calling for the city to put the plan on ice until an independent social impact assessment is conducted. 

The party rejected Hill-Lewis’s assertion that communities along the N2 corridor are on board with the plan. The ANC argues that key voices of poorer, marginalised communities bordering the highway have not been taken into account. 

The ANC added that physical barriers often shift criminal activity elsewhere, rather than reducing it, and that the wall will only give a false sense of security, isolating communities. 

The ANC’s Western Cape Caucus leader dubbed the project the “South African Berlin Wall.”

N2 communities onboard

The Freedom Front Plus, on the other hand, welcomed the developments and added that it is unfortunate that lives had to be claimed before the city acted to build the wall. 

“The situation is reminiscent of the current foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, where decisive action was only taken after it had turned into a crisis,” the party said.

Hill-Lewis has responded to criticism of the plan. During a council speech in January 2026, he said he had “already seen some of the predictable responses and charges on this.”

“So let me be clear about a few things: firstly, the N2 already has a security barrier, it is just completely dilapidated, and there is nearly nothing left of it. It needs to be replaced,” he said.

He added that the city will do anything to protect its residents, even if this interferes with other government entities. 

“It matters not to me that it is actually someone else’s job. Just as in energy, and in policing, and in public transport, our approach is always the same: if there is a state institution that is failing our people, we must try to do what we can to help,” he said. 

Hill-Lewis recently conducted a visit to communities living along the N2, which he shared on social media. 

All residents Hill-Lewis interviewed expressed support for the wall, saying that young children from the community have been killed on the road fetching balls that roll onto the highway.