The City of Cape Town’s proposed R114 million N2 security wall, known as the N2 Edge safety project, is facing growing scrutiny, with political parties arguing it is a mere “cosmetic intervention” and “political spin.”
Build One South Africa (BOSA) says in a recent Parliamentary reply, the Acting Police Minister, Firoz Cachalia, directly contradicted the City’s justification for the wall along the N2 corridor, known as the Hell Run to motorists.
BOSA posed the following questions to Cachalia on 27 February 2026:
Whether he has found that the N2 safety project proposed by the City of Cape Town is an effective safety measure and therefore more suitable for addressing the safety concerns of nearby residents and road users as compared to sustained visible policing and increased investigative capacity; if not, what (a) safety and security concerns faced by nearby residents and road users of the N2 will not be directly addressed by the construction of a highway wall and (b) sustained tools and/or resources does he intend to utilise to address the concerns; if so, what are the relevant details?
Cachalia responded that:
- The South African Police Service has not determined that the N2 wall can replace sustained visible policing or improved investigative capacity.
- A highway barrier may help prevent some opportunistic crimes by restricting pedestrian access to the roadway.
- Infrastructure interventions cannot replace core policing functions.
- A wall will not directly address organised criminal activity operating beyond the roadside.
- It will not tackle firearm-related offences, gang-related violence, or resolve broader public order challenges affecting surrounding communities.
He also outlined current policing measures SAPS says it relies on:
- High-visibility patrols.
- Intelligence-led operations.
- Targeted deployment of specialised units based on threat assessments.
- Collaboration with municipal law enforcement agencies.
- Focused investigations aimed at arrests and successful prosecutions.
The Minister concluded that effective crime reduction requires an “integrated strategy, combining environmental design measures with sustained policing, intelligence work, and prosecutorial action.”
BOSA Spokesperson Roger Solomons says Cachalia’s reply stands in “stark contrast to repeated public commitments by the Mayor of Cape Town that the N2 wall will help stop crime along the corridor.”
“BOSA has long held that this wall is more a cosmetic intervention than a crime-fighting strategy. If the country’s own Police Minister acknowledges that a wall will not stop the most serious forms of crime affecting nearby communities, then the City must explain why it continues to present this project as a meaningful safety solution.”
The GOOD Party’s Brett Herron also doubled down on his criticism of the N2 wall, accusing Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis of “election spin.”
Herron says in response to written questions in the Western Cape legislature, it has emerged that the Western Cape Department of Infrastructure, which has the authority to approve the project, has had no involvement in any planning, is not involved in any studies, and has not spent any funds on any work relating to the project.
“Walling off the ghettoes is more fantasy than reality, certainly at this stage, with lots of energy devoted to the comms (in an election year) and none to actual planning.”
He said, besides safety barrier repairs and reinforcements along the N2, from the Baden Powell Road intersection to Bhunga Avenue, the project would bring various safety improvements for adjacent communities, including:
- new pedestrian crossings,
- improved lighting and access control,
- safety barriers for recreational spaces,
- safer grazing practices,
- reduced scope for illegal dumping,
- and other opportunities arising from the coming engagements with communities along the N2
He maintains it will make a positive difference to the safety of every motorist along that stretch and reduce pedestrian fatalities.
“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, including commuters from Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain, Blue Downs, Eerste River, Mfuleni, the Helderberg, and neighbouring towns.
The N2 edge project will improve safety alongside the City’s beefed-up highway patrolling, with over 40 new Metro cops deployed to the N2, backed by CCTV cameras, automatic number plate recognition, and digital coordination for rapid response to help motorists.”
The project is scheduled to have its main construction funded in the 2027 financial year. R7 million has been allocated in the current financial year for detailed design work, with R108 million planned for the 2026/27 financial year.
