The
R21 is a major north-south
provincial route (with a freeway portion designated as a
National Road) in eastern
Gauteng Province,
South Africa. Built in the early 1970s, it remains the only other freeway (apart from the N1) that links Pretoria with Johannesburg, via the R24. As the eastern of the two freeways, it links the
Pretoria city centre with
OR Tambo International Airport, the N12 freeway, and
Boksburg. Between the Hans Strijdom Road on-ramp in
Monument Park, Pretoria, and the
N12 in Boksburg, the R21 is an 8 lane
highway and
motorway (
freeway), with 4 lanes in each direction. It has off-ramps leading to
Irene, Olifantsfontein,
Benoni, and
Kempton Park, including a partial offramp to Atlas Road. The route intersects the
N1 Eastern Pretoria Bypass near
Centurion, the
R24 near the airport, the N12 and
N17 in Boksburg, and the
N3 near
Vosloorus on the
East Rand, where it ends. The section from the N12 to the N3 is not a freeway. As early as the 1970s there were proposals to extend the R21 freeway further south and the freeway may be linked with the current eastern terminus of the M2 in Germiston in future.