RUSTENBURG HERALD - BUFFELSPOORT - Residents of Spruitfontein have once again demonstrated their unwavering commitment to their community by taking matters into their own hands to repair the deteriorating R104. With the road’s condition worsening and no timely intervention in sight, locals rallied together, using their own time, resources, and money to restore one of the area’s most important routes.
Farmers, families, and business owners pooled funds, gathered materials, and worked side by side to patch potholes and stabilise damaged sections of the road. For many, the R104 is not just a daily travel route — it’s an essential lifeline for school transport, work commutes, farm access, and emergency services.
Residents say the effort is not new; it’s part of an ongoing pattern of community action whenever the road becomes too unsafe. What stands out each time, however, is the unity: people showing up with whatever they have, from tractors and trailers to shovels and sheer determination.
While the repairs come at a personal cost to those involved, the spirit behind the initiative reflects a larger truth — Spruitfontein is a community that does not wait for change. When something needs to be done, they come together and make it happen. The restored sections of the R104 stand as a testament to the power of ordinary citizens choosing to protect their community, one repaired pothole at a time.
The R104 between Buffelspoort and Kroondal areas is at times, a badly congested road linking Rustenburg, Kroondal and Buffelspoort - with major urban areas of Gauteng - and is a road extremely important from a tourism, leisure and residential perspective. The Buffelspoort Valley stretches from the area between Kroondal in the West, to Green Valley in the East, and from Marikana in the North, to Maanhaarrand. The main road is better known as the “old Pretoria to Rustenburg road”. Important businesses in the area include the Buffelspoort ATKV Resort, Rainbow Chicken farms, Vaal Maseru Buses and a number of well-known mines such as Sibanye-Stillwater, Marikana Mines and others.
The Buffelspoort community and the R104 action group in particular hope that a petition that is currently circulating will help the community in its cause to repair the R104 once and for all - its been in quite a bad condition over the past three to 10 years. During the past weekend alone, some 5.2 tons of tar was used to repair potholes on this notorious road with another 6.2 tons waiting to be used during the coming week.
Please raise your complaint at the following emails:
Residents, readers and road users are also urged to join and sign the petition: https://tinyurl.com/raiseyourvoicehere
