Johannesburg's M2 highway closure delayed

It was too early to tell whether the closure of a section of the M2 highway would drastically affect traffic from Germiston to Johannesburg early on Thursday - as the planned closure did not go according to plan.

By 7.30am motorists were still driving from the east to the CBD on the section of road that was supposed to have been closed at 6am.

Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba announced recently that a portion of the M2 would be closed in both directions from 6am on Thursday.

However, at 7.30am there were still cars driving past the Maritzburg Road offramp to the CBD.

 The plan was to close all onramps and offramps, but this was delayed because by 8am barricades had not been delivered, said Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) spokesperson Wayne Minnaar.

"The closure is taking longer than anticipated because the steel barricades are much heavier and taking longer to offload," he  said.