The M2 road is a metropolitan route in the

City of Tshwane The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (also known as the City of Tshwane) () is the metropolitan municipality that forms the local government of northern Gauteng Province, South Africa. The Metropolitan area is centred on the city of Pr ...

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. It connects the N1 and N4 highways at the Proefplaas Interchange with Proclamation Hill via Hatfield,

Pretoria CBD Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foothi ...

and

Pretoria West Pretoria West is a suburb of Pretoria, South Africa, situated from the city centre. According to the 2011 census, it has a population of 11,535 (1,869.99 per km²). Notable companies Notable companies based in Pretoria West include: * Pre ...

Route

The M2 starts at the Proefplaas interchange with the N1 Highway (

Pretoria Bypass The Pretoria Ring Road, also known as the Pretoria Bypass, is a collection of two bypasses that together form a partial ring road around the city of Pretoria, South Africa. It consists of a section of the N1 Highway (known as the Eastern Bypass) ...

) and the N4 Highway (

Maputo Corridor The Maputo Corridor is a major trade corridor which connects the Gauteng, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa with Maputo, which is a port and the capital of Mozambique. The corridor comprises roads - including the N4 toll road (from ...

) in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

East, just north of the Scientia suburb. It heads west to pass through the Hatfield suburb, becoming two one-way streets (Pretorius Street westwards from the N1 and Francis Baard Street, formerly Schoeman Street, eastwards to the N1) and meeting the M7 route (Gordon Road; Jan Shoba Street). At Arcadia, the M2 meets the M5 route (Hamilton Street; Steve Biko Road) and immediately afterwards, it meets the M3 route (Nelson Mandela Drive). The M2 leaves Pretorius Street and Francis Baard Street to join the M3 on Nelson Mandela Drive southwards up to the next junction, where the M2 becomes Nana Sita Street (formerly Skinner Street) westwards. It passes through the

westwards as Nana Sita Street, meeting the M18 route (Thabo Sehume Stret; Bosman Street) and the R101 Route (Sophie de Bruyn Street; Kgosi Mampuru Street). Just after the Pretoria CBD, the M2 reaches a junction, where it meets the southern terminus of the M1 route (Es'kia Mphahlele Drive) and the western terminus of the M6 route (Visagie Street), where it crosses into

. It once again becomes two one-way streets (Charlotte Maxeke Street, formerly Mitchell Street, westwards and Soutter Street eastwards) through Pretoria West, before becoming one street westwards (Charlotte Maxeke Street) and reaching its end at a junction with the M22 route (Quagga Road) at Proclamation Hill.

History

Together with the M4 route, the section of the M2 route from the Proefplaas Interchange near Hatfield to the M5 junction in Arcadia was previously part of the N4 National Route, which connects the

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

Border in the east with the

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...

Border in the west. It was part of the main route from the east of Pretoria to the west of Pretoria. Then, the N4 was realigned on a new highway known as the

, which forms part of the

Platinum Highway The Platinum Highway is part of the N4, and a major South African highway built under concessions with a private contractor. In 2001, the project was voted Infrastructure Deal of the Year by Project Finance International Magazine. It took eight ye ...

maintained by Bakwena, in order for the city centre to be bypassed to the north and east. The old route through Pretoria Central, specifically from the Proefplaas Interchange to the M5 junction, was then re-designated as the M2 Metropolitan Route of Tshwane, although some Global Positioning Systems still label this old route as the N4 together with the newer route north of Pretoria.

References

{{Reflist Metropolitan Routes in Pretoria