Durban - President Jacob Zuma officially opened the new Dumisani Makhaye Drive for public use in Clermont, Durban on Saturday, as part of Government’s nationwide programme of infrastructure development.
Speaking at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium on Saturday, Zuma sais the completion of the R1.3 billion road infrastructure project made it the biggest road infrastructure development in the country in five years.
The road is named after the late struggle hero, Mr Dumisani Makhaye, who also served in various capacities including as MEC in the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Executive Council.
It connects, among others, the communities of Newlands, KwaMashu, Inanda, KwaDabeka, Clermont and Pinetown.
Dumisani Makhaye Drive also offers a new, alternative route to the King Shaka International Airport for traffic coming from the Pietermaritzburg and Pinetown areas, which will now ease traffic congestion on the N2/ N3 interchange.
Zuma said the investment would assist in the radial economic transformation of the country and was a clear demonstration of government’s commitment to growing the economy and creating much-needed jobs.
He said the naming of the road was part of the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government’s Roads Naming and Renaming Legacy Project, which was aimed at naming and renaming roads and bridges infrastructure in the province’s roads network to help communities reclaim their historical legacy, pride and heritage.
Zuma commended the engineers and construction workers, who took care to ensure that neither of our landscape was damaged.
He said the completion of the main road works, paved the way for the use of the road by members of the public, especially motorists.
The Dumisani Makhaye Drive spans the uMngeni River and provides a strategic link between Duffs Road in KwaMashu to Dinkelman in New Germany.
It cuts off a massive 16 kilometres for traffic using N3 to connect to N2, which he said would help eradicate the legacy of colonialism and apartheid-based spatial planning.
