Motorists traveling between Mogwase and Sun City in the Moses Kotane Local Municipality in the North West can expect some relief as President Drive (Road P53/1) has been partially reopened to traffic.
The vital corridor was closed over a month ago due to a massive sinkhole and culvert/bridge damage, forcing road users to use lengthy and costly detours via the R510 and R556.
The road was among those severely affected by the torrential rains and heavy storms across parts of the province in May.
The devastating weather also caused widespread flooding, structural damage, and major road closures, particularly in districts like Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati, Ngaka Modiri Molema, and Bojanala Platinum
The North West Department of Public Works and Roads Head of Department Moss Kgantsi confirmed on YOU FM Newshour that the contractor appointed to provide emergency reconstruction of the road at the cost of R11.9 million has delivered on time as promised and partially restored traffic flow.
“We were promised that the road will be opened for traffic, (n July 24, 2026) and so we are pleased to inform members of the public and the road users that indeed the road is partially opened.
Because other technical engineering work is continuing under the culvert and finalizing some structural work on it.
Tsela e butswe, baagi ba kanne ba tsamaya mo go yona, jaaka re resolofeditse (The road has been opened, residents can use it as promised in the past,)” said Kgantsi.
He added that the remaining work on the road will take around two to three-weeks, before the road is completely open to traffic.
“We were equally concerned with the closure of the road because residents of Mogwase particularly who are working at a nearby holiday resort, Kwa Maritane Game Lodge were severely affected as they were forced to travel almost 22km away from their workplace, which obviously increased the transport cost.
We have however engaged them including other stakeholders such as the local taxi association and kept them abreast with the developments on the project,” explained Kgantsi.
Meanwhile, the department has embarked on several multi-year road construction across the province.
On Thursday, MEC Elizabeth Mokua introduced the contractor appointed for the R178m upgrading from gravel to surface standard of Road D414 from Tshidilamolomo to Mabule for 16.3km.
The project is expected to create approximately 80 job opportunities with R26m set aside to benefit SMMEs through subcontracting
