Matongo just one of many ‘high accident zone’ casualties

Johannesburg metro executive mayor Jolidee Matongo is one in a list of many victims claimed by the Golden Highway near Lenasia South, after his death this weekend on what has been described as the deadliest part of the infamous road.

The section of the road where Matongo and a 23-year-old Lenasia motorist died on Saturday night is marked with several ‘High Accident Zone’ signs.

Also Read: Joburg mayor Jolidee Matongo dies in car accident

“A week hardly passes without a fatal accident here. On Sunday I got off a taxi around 6am and there was a horrific accident. It was chaos when I arrived, people were being air-lifted to hospital and emergency services workers were freeing victims trapped in the wreckage,” Chris Adams told The Citizen on Monday afternoon.

The father of three, who runs a hawking stall across the road from where Matongo perished, said he was returning from a trip, when he was greeted by the chaos on Sunday morning.

Adams said when he arrived at the carnage, he was not even aware that the city’s first citizen had perished nearby the previous evening.

“I was in the Northern Cape visiting family so I had no idea what had happened. It was from people on the roadside that I learnt of the mayor’s fatal crash. This road is dangerous and I know it,” he said.

Adams said most of the road’s victims were the pedestrians’ crossing the road to and from either side, and he believes the biggest problem was intoxicated people.

Pedestrian problem

When The Citizen visited the crash scene on Monday afternoon, both sides of the road were teeming with pedestrians crossing the road while cars whizzed by dangerously.

The Citizen’s own photographer Nigel Sibanda almost ran over a pedestrian who appeared from nowhere and had to be avoided second as he wandered across the road.

“There are alcohol outlets on both sides of the road. People just stumble on the road and that is the biggest problem,” Adams said.

Chester Nkosi, who works in a nearby scrap dealership, said it has become the norm to hear a loud crash and people streaming to witness the latest accident in the area.

He said earlier this year, a woman and two children were mowed down by a truck as they waited to cross the road.

“This road is dangerous. Many people have died here, especially pedestrians. Most accidents here are caused by pedestrians and speeding motorists. That is the problem.”

Chester Nkosi

The Citizen team observed at least two road signs on the road, identifying that particular stretch as a ‘high accident zone’.

Right next to the accident scene there are foot paths on both sides of the road, indicating its use as a makeshift pedestrian crossing and, for at least 1Km in both directions there is no sign showing the speed limit of 60km/h.

Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson Wayne Minnaar, confirmed that the stretch of the road had claimed countless lives before, mostly pedestrians.

“It is an accident prone road. Last year. Last year three children died in a head-on collision… We lost an officer in 2017 (on the road). There has been accidents and we can confirm that mostly it is pedestrians, particularly at night,” he said. siphom@citizen.co.za

According to authorities, Matongo’s BMW X5 was trying to avoid a pedestrian and swerved into oncoming traffic, when it collided head-on with a Nissan NP200 bakkie.

The executive mayor was headed home after an ANC door-to-door election campaign with President Cyril Ramaphosa in Soweto.

The 23-year-old Lenasia motorist who collided with Matongo’s vehicle has since died, with the mayor’s driver and bodyguard seriously injured.