Cape Town’s road of death

A roughly four-kilometre stretch of the N2 highway near Cape Town International Airport has been identified as a hazardous route for drivers, with attacks leaving several severely injured.

Minister of Police Firoz Cachalia recently said that 42 criminal incidents were reported at the airport between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025.

“The scene of the crime for these cases is the Exit 18 off-ramp from the N2 into Borcherds Quarry Road in the vicinity of Nyanga,” Cachalia said in a response to a Member of Parliament.

Crime activist Paul Treleven described an attack he was the victim of in July, when travelling on the stretch of road to catch a flight to Johannesburg.

“At about 4.10 p.m., we had just passed under the Mew Way bridge going towards the airport from Somerset West. Roughly 500 metres after that, there is a pedestrian bridge. 

“As we approached the bridge, I saw something flash up from the Armco barrier and then saw something hurtling towards the car.”

Treleven said that something exploded through the windscreen, hitting the passenger’s headrest and fortunately missing his wife, who had bent forward to put her handbag at her feet.

However, he says that the object, which was a five-kilogram piece of concrete, shattered the windscreen, causing the shards to cut his wife’s face.

“We carried on driving, and the next moment, a car came up on my right with two guys in it and mirror sunglasses on. They were both shouting at me, and when I opened the window, they said that I had killed a kid and that I needed to stop.”

“I immediately assessed the car and couldn’t see any damage from a pedestrian accident, but I decided to continue driving until I got to the airport.”

Treleven said the vehicle cut in front of him, attempting to slow him down. However, he managed to evade it and make it to the airport.

Following the attack, Treleven said that he called 10111 but is still waiting “for a response to this day.”

He added that he failed to get a response when trying to contact the Premier of the Western Cape, Allen Winde, and the Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, to find out about policing in the area.

Hill-Lewis responded only when Treleven copied him in on an email to one of Condé Nast’s travel magazines.

Newsday has reached out to the City of Cape Town for comment.

Nothing new

Several similar attacks have taken place over the past few years, with one in 2023 leaving a woman dead.

Similar to the attack on Treleven, Leonie van der Westhuisen was killed after suffering a cardiac arrest when a stone was hurled through the windscreen of her car and hit her on the head.

Van der Westhuisen and her husband were in Cape Town celebrating their wedding anniversary and driving on the N2 when the attack occurred.

Two years earlier, a 21-year-old student, Lucilla Vlok, was travelling to pick up a friend from the airport when a rock smashed through her windscreen and hit her jaw. 

She managed to reach the airport but passed out in the parking lot, waking up in the hospital with a broken jaw.

There is also evidence of these types of attacks dating back to 2006. News24 reported that a mother of three and her kids escaped injury when a block of concrete was tossed off the Nyanga bridge and landed on the roof of her car.

She said that when travelling from Delft to Walmer Estate, her daughter noticed someone on top of the bridge drop the object onto their moving vehicle.

The woman said that when the 10111 operator answered her call, she was told to calm down “because similar incidents occur regularly.”