The R24 is a major East-West provincial route in the Gauteng and North West provinces that links OR Tambo International Airport with Rustenburg via Johannesburg, Krugersdorp and Magaliesburg. The section of the route from OR Tambo International westwards up to a point in Roodepoort has been named Albertina Sisulu Road since 2013, named after anti-apartheid stalwart Albertina Sisulu.
Route
Gauteng
The R24 begins at Johannesburg International Airport (OR Tambo International Airport) in the East Rand (Ekurhuleni), Gauteng. It heads west as a freeway, beginning with an interchange with the R21 (Pretoria-Boksburg highway), then heads west-south-west through the southern edge of Kempton Park (where it has a junction at Lazarus Mawela Road, formerly Barbara Road – M59) and Edenvale (where it has a junction at Lungile Mtshali Road, formerly Van Riebeeck Road/Edenvale Road – M37).) with the N3 highway, where the N12 leaves the westerly highway and joins the N3 Eastern Bypass southwards on the Johannesburg Ring Road, leaving the R24 as the westwards freeway into Johannesburg. Just after the interchange with the N3 & N12, it passes north of the Eastgate Shopping Centre and leaves the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality to enter the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Here, the R24 stops being a freeway.
Geography
Street name
By October 2013, every street and freeway that makes up the R24 from OR Tambo International Airport, Ekurhuleni, through Johannesburg and Roodepoort, was officially named after Albertina Sisulu, with the only exceptions being in some one-way-street sections of the route. In Johannesburg CBD, the street for vehicles going westwards is still named Commissioner Street (name did not change) (while the parallel street going the other direction was renamed to Albertina Sisulu Road). In the Maraisburg suburb of Roodepoort, the street for vehicles going eastwards is still named 9th Street (name did not change) (while the parallel street going the other direction was renamed to Albertina Sisulu Road). The use of the street name Albertina Sisulu Road ends in the northern part of Roodepoort, at the junction with Corlett Avenue, stretching a distance of 45 kilometres from the airport.
Plans to rename Commissioner Street to Albertina Sisulu Road were included initially and the family of Sisulu welcomed this proposal but only the one-way-street for the other direction (east), Market Street, was renamed to Albertina Sisulu Road So, the R21 from Pretoria to OR Tambo International and the R24 from OR Tambo International to the Eastgate Shopping Centre in Bedfordview are together known as the Albertina Sisulu Freeway. including the 2 km section in Bedfordview where it is co-signed with the R24. As a result, the westward side of the co-signed section had an e-toll gantry installed just before the George Bizos Interchange with the N3 and motorists would be billed for driving on that section on the route. As the R24 in Gauteng is not a route maintained by SANRAL and was not indicated as a toll road, motorists and companies wondered why motorists were being charged for being on a National Road for only 2 km on the route from Johannesburg's Airport to Johannesburg's city centre. that e-tolls in Gauteng would officially be shut down on 11 April 2024 at midnight. As a result of the e-toll discontinuation, all the e-toll gantries, including the Loerie e-toll on the N12 and R24 co-signed section, would no-longer operate.