Johannesburg - In Albertina Sisulu Road you can trade scrap metal, watch law making, go pub crawling or buy an air ticket, apples, car spares, graves and sex.
It’s done: the City of Joburg has picked up the paintbrushes, unpacked new street signs and renamed the R24 from one end of the metro boundaries to the other.
The Albertina Sisulu Road stretches from OR Tambo International Airport in the east to the intersection with Corlett Avenue, Roodepoort, in the west.
The freeway from the airport through Ekurhuleni was named a few years ago, and last month Joburg did the rest.
It’s a stretch of the R24 about 45km long and most of the way it’s a rundown, semi-industrial or inner-city road fronted by endless car sales lots, auto spares traders, textile shops, money lenders and small factories. The unexpected highlight is a tiny park in the CBD adorned with artworks, aloes and daisies.
The freeway name was added in time for the 2010 World Cup by the Gauteng Department of Transport; previously the freeway was known only as the R24, so the name was added rather than changed.
To carry the name through Joburg, the city council renamed 18 streets.
City officials counted 10 Joburg suburbs that the road runs through; The Star counted 30 Joburg and seven Ekurhuleni suburbs.
At the start of Albertina Sisulu Road you can watch the planes take off at OR Tambo, then you can drive through Ekurhuleni, past the refurbished South African flag alongside the freeway, through Gillooly’s interchange to Joburg.
By the time you get to Corlett Avenue in Princess, Roodepoort, you will have passed the Troyeville Hotel, Jeppe and Joburg Central police stations, the Gauteng legislature and the burnt-out old Rissik Street post office, at least two Home Affairs offices, numerous railway stations, the Oriental Plaza, Newclare cemetery, Florida Lake and the Princess informal settlement.
You can buy fruit, vegetables and shoes from hawkers in the CBD and inner-city areas, eat meat braaied in the street, shop for clothes and materials, and catch the Rea Vaya buses.
You are also able to borrow from money lenders, visit banks and churches, go to religious schools, visit a library, and buy anything from furniture to hookah.
Pamphlets advertise everything from prophets to happy hours and karaoke, while newly painted adverts under one freeway bridge offer sex.
The renaming was legalised in a council resolution of July 31, 2008 and has taken five years to implement.
In November 2008, the city issued public notices advertising the renaming and gave residents 28 days to comment.
In June last year, another council resolution again approved the renaming.
There are seven mistakes in the 18 renamed streets in the official renaming documents.
Four streets have been wrongly identified (one doesn’t exist, the others are nearby streets), and three streets are officially renamed in their entirety, although only sections are part of the R24 and have new signs.
Council minutes indicate that Cope councillor Peter Weir objected to the renaming, saying that Sisulu was “worthy of every honour”.
However, despite adverts about the changes, nobody had responded and the costs of the change would be far higher than the budget – “and a drop when compared to what it would cost the ratepayer”.
The Star