Morero defends brick paving on newly repaired Lillian Ngoyi Street

Johannesburg mayor, Dada Morero, has defended the city’s decision to pave Lilian Ngoyi Street with bricks instead of the traditional tar.

The City of Johannesburg has completed the first phase of repairs to the road, which was badly damaged two years ago when a gas explosion tore through the busy Johannesburg CBD road— killing one person and injuring nearly 50 others.

The explosion, caused by a gas leak, severely damaged the road infrastructure and nearby buildings, forcing authorities to close the street for extensive repairs and safety assessments.

Lillian Ngoyi Street, formerly known as Bree Street, has long been a key transport road in the Johannesburg CBD, especially for minibus taxis coming from Soweto and other parts of the city.

The City had initially committed to reopening the road this week, but motorists will now only be able to use it from 12 September, once final touch-ups are complete.

While the city says the brick paving is intended to create a multi-purpose road, the choice has been met with criticism from residents and social media users, who question its durability for such high traffic volumes.

“The whole idea is to allow for motorists and pedestrians, and everyone to have better usage of the road, so that the road is not only used by vehicles, and that is why we moved the concept away from your normal tar into paving, to allow that mixture,” said Morero.

The Mayor added that once fully completed, the refurbished road will enable economic activity and enhance the urban environment for both residents and businesses.

This phase of repairs cost the city R82 million from the R192 million that has already been paid to contractors. The remaining R110 million will be used for phase 2 of the project.

According to authorities, the road will be open to traffic on the 12th of September, once the sidewalks have also been fully completed.

The CEO of the Johannesburg Road Agency, Zweli Nyathi, says the paving is easy to maintain and has new technology added.

“Underneath where I am standing, there is new technology to detect things like gas and leakages, so that we don’t have a recurrence of the incident. We are very comfortable that we stuck to the timeline, we are grateful to the contractors as well for putting in double shifts and effort and sticking to what they promised,” he said.

Nyathi says the refurbishment has allowed for the use of extensive technology.

“We are also going to put surveillance here, state-of-the-art traffic signals that have timers and everything.”

Does this paving mean that Lilian Ngoyi is now pedestrianised? That would be great.

Lilian Ngoyi/Bree was the main artery for taxis coming from the south/Soweto to Nord Street Taxi Rank, connecting to the north of Joburg. Hence “corner Bree!” is famous saying to get off a taxi. https://t.co/DXjglIsjJD

— Mbekezeli (@MbekezeliMB) September 1, 2025

#LillianNgoyiStreet| Bree Street| Lilian Ngoyi Street| City of Joburg| Johannesburg

Before. After pic.twitter.com/3aqkA2mMMX

— MR AIRTIME (@Aubrey_Senyolo) September 1, 2025

It looks so nice! 😍.

I hope informal trading will be managed better as is being done on Main Street, Anderson, Masrhsall etc.

Honestly this new Bree Street doesnt need chaos and competion for pavement space between pedestrians and hawkers

— DuchessOfSandton (@DuchessOfSanton) September 1, 2025