The Johannesburg Ring Road is a set of freeways that circle the city of Johannesburg, South Africa and service the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality.

[1][2][3][4] The entire ring road is approximately 83 km long and was an e-toll highway (with open road tolling) from 3 December 2013[5] up until e-tolls were shut down in Gauteng on 12 April 2024.

[6][7] Construction on the Ring Road began in the late 1960s.

The Ring Road had two major aims when it was built: to allow traffic not destined for Johannesburg to bypass the city along a number of high-speed freeways in quick and easy fashion and also to allow for the mobility of Apartheid South African Army to defend the state from hostile neighbours or to quell violence in black townships during a state of emergency.

[citation needed] The Road is composed of three freeways that converge on the city, and form an 80-kilometre (50 mi) loop around Johannesburg.