If you commute into Johannesburg for work, you already know the pain: sitting on the M1, watching the clock tick past your meeting start time. Inching along William Nicol during morning rush. The eternal crawl on the N3 heading home.
But here’s what you might not know: You lost 55 hours to traffic in 2024. That’s more than two full days of your life spent going nowhere.
Cape Town had it worse at 94 hours (seventh globally according to the INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard). Pretoria clocked 45 hours. Durban 35. Pietermaritzburg 33.
These aren’t just frustrating statistics for South African commuters. They’re revealing something profound about how our work culture is shifting – and where it’s stuck – in the post-pandemic era.
Because traffic patterns don’t just measure cars on the road. They map power dynamics, workplace negotiations, and the unspoken compromises happening between South African employers and employees about when, where, and how work actually gets done.
Cape Town’s Wake-Up Call: The Travel Demand Strategy Draft
In October 2025, Cape Town released a draft Travel Demand Management (TDM) Strategy that sent shockwaves through the business community – and revealed just how seriously municipal authorities are taking the congestion crisis.
The plan is radical by South African standards: congestion pricing fees for driving in busy areas during peak times, high-occupancy vehicle lanes reserved for cars with multiple passengers plus buses and minibus taxis, parking restrictions in the CBD and high-demand areas, park-and-ride facilities (contingent on rail restoration), and dedicated walking and cycling lanes.
But here’s the part that matters for every South African workplace: The strategy explicitly calls for flexible work programmes and remote working models to reduce peak-hour travel.
Rob Quintas, Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility, was clear: “The city’s TDM strategy has three broad goals – to encourage people to avoid travelling in their private vehicles during peak periods, to walk or cycle where possible, and to reduce the need for travelling by working remotely.”
The public comment period closed on November 13, 2025, but the message is unmistakable: Municipal authorities are now viewing flexible and remote work as critical infrastructure solutions, not just HR policies.
The Congestion Charge That Isn’t Coming (Yet)
Media reports sparked panic about imminent congestion charges – Cape Town paying to drive into the CBD during rush hour, London-style tolls, Singapore’s electronic road pricing.
The City quickly clarified: No congestion charge is being implemented now or in the near future.
Why? Because the strategy “clearly states that the city would not consider or even investigate a congestion tax or charge until public transport is the most reliable and effective option to travel.” Given the state of Cape Town’s MyCiTi bus system and the still-recovering Metrorail, that’s years away.
But the inclusion of congestion charging in the long-term strategy (planning horizon to 2050) signals where things are heading. And it explains why employers who offer flexibility now will have a competitive advantage before it becomes a regulatory necessity.
The uncomfortable truth: Whether through municipal policy, traffic reality, or employee demand, South African workplaces are being pushed toward flexibility. The only question is whether employers adapt proactively or get forced by circumstances.
The Inequality Buried in the Traffic Strategy
Civil society groups immediately raised red flags about Cape Town’s TDM Strategy – and their critique reveals the hidden privilege in South Africa’s hybrid work debate.
The strategy promises to “promote affordability and equity” and “address the apartheid spatial legacy through integrated mobility solutions.” But the distance-based fare system for public transport does the opposite.
As advocacy group For Good notes: “Those living furthest from economic hubs – mainly Black and Coloured communities forcibly relocated to the outskirts under apartheid – bear the highest transport costs simply to access jobs and services.”
What this means for workplace flexibility: When we talk about “hybrid work” in South Africa, we’re often talking about a privilege available primarily to:
- White-collar professionals in tech, finance, and business services
- Those with reliable home internet and backup power
- Workers living in suburbs with fibre connectivity
- Employees whose companies provide data stipends or co-working memberships
The domestic worker commuting two hours each way from Khayelitsha to Constantia? The factory worker traveling from Tembisa to Midrand? The retail employee getting from Soweto to Sandton? They don’t have the option to “work from home on Fridays.”
This creates a two-tier workforce where flexibility is a luxury, not a universal right—and where traffic congestion disproportionately burdens those who can least afford it in both time and money.
The Wednesday Phenomenon: When South Africa Goes to the Office
Discovery Insure analyzed our driving patterns and found something striking: Nearly 80% of South African workers – both full-time and hybrid – go into the office on Wednesdays. Friday? That’s the least popular day for office attendance.
This isn’t random. It mirrors what’s happening globally, where Tuesdays are the most meeting-heavy days and Fridays the lightest. South African workplaces are clustering in-office collaboration midweek – Tuesday through Thursday – while Mondays and Fridays see noticeably lighter traffic on the highways.
Robert Attwell, Discovery Insure’s CEO, confirms it: “Offices are likely at their fullest on a Wednesday.”
What this means for you: If you’re commuting into Sandton, Rosebank, or Midrand on Wednesday, you’re part of the 80%. But the data also shows that most South Africans aren’t working the traditional Monday-to-Friday, 9-to-5 schedule anymore.
Hybrid work in South Africa isn’t dead – it’s just strategic. Offices are becoming purposeful gathering spaces for collaboration rather than daily obligations. We’re consolidating in-person work around midweek intensity, leaving flexibility on the edges.
And that Friday early knock-off? Still sacred. Discovery’s data shows South Africans spend 20 minutes less in the office on Fridays compared to other weekdays – a cultural pattern that predates the pandemic but has been reinforced by hybrid flexibility.
The Great Return-to-Office Contradiction
Here’s where Johannesburg’s traffic data gets interesting – and contradictory.
On one hand: Traffic congestion is rising. Morning rush hour on the N1, M1, and N3 has surged to levels not seen since 2021. Cape Town even spent R444 million trying to reduce congestion, yet hours lost still increased by 11 hours in 2024. Return-to-office mandates are bringing South Africans back.
On the other hand: Traffic volumes still haven’t returned to 2019 pre-pandemic levels. Discovery Insure confirms that while traffic has increased on certain days, overall volumes remain below what they were before COVID-19.
The reality: Companies are successfully mandating some return to office, but nowhere near full reversion. About 23% of Discovery Insure clients who began working from home during the pandemic are still not back in the office full-time. Of those who do commute, only 53% do so five days a week, with 75% commuting at least three times weekly.
This creates the worst possible outcome for Johannesburg commuters: enough people on the roads to create gridlock, but not enough to justify massive infrastructure investment that would only be needed a few days per week.
You’re sitting in traffic because we’re stuck between two worlds – neither fully remote nor fully office-based. And that in-between zone is the most congested place to be.
The Remote Work Tug-of-War: What South African Job Markets Actually Show
South Africa’s remote work landscape is caught in conflicting currents, and the data tells different stories depending on where you look.
The decline narrative: CareerJunction’s Employment Insights Report for Q4 2024 shows remote and hybrid job postings declining from 4.3% in 2023 to 3.7% in 2024. Major companies like Vodacom scrapped remote work for senior staff. KPMG’s 2023 CEO Outlook found that 72% of Southern African CEOs favour returning to in-person work within three years.
The resilience narrative: Pnet’s Job Market Trends Report for October 2025 shows remote vacancies climbing by 0.5 percentage points between March and September 2025 – small but significant growth after two years of decline. Currently, 3.6% of all advertised South African jobs are remote or hybrid, still dramatically higher than the 0.2% in 2019.
The sector divide: IT remains the stronghold, with 11.5% of tech job listings offering remote options – up from just 2.3% in 2019. Software development leads at 12% remote vacancies. But remote opportunities are expanding beyond tech into admin, business management, and finance roles.
The employee reality: OfferZen’s survey found that office-based policies increased from 7.9% to 9.6% between 2023 and 2024, but they still represent the minority. Remote work remains at 40.8% of surveyed employees. More tellingly, at least a third of Gen Z employees wouldn’t consider a position without a remote option, and more than half of respondents would consider leaving their jobs if forced to return to the office full-time.
What this means for South African workers: There’s a massive gap between what CEOs say they want (everyone back in the office) and what the actual job market is delivering (continued flexibility, especially for scarce skills). If you’re in IT, finance, or business management, you have leverage. Companies hiring for high-demand skills are offering flexibility whether executives like it or not.
The Morning vs. Evening Dynamic: Who Controls Your Day?
Johannesburg’s traffic patterns reveal the power dynamics at play in South African workplaces.
Mornings are collective again. Rush hour is back. The N1 southbound from Pretoria. The M1 southbound from Randburg. William Nicol through Fourways. They’re all gridlocked between 7am and 9am, synchronized around work start times but also life logistics like school drop-offs at Crawford, St Stithians, or Redhill. Companies are successfully dictating when you arrive.
Evenings are individualized. The once-standard evening rush is now stretched over several hours. While employers control morning arrival, many South African workers retain control over departure times, creating a more flexible afternoon dynamic.
Discovery’s data confirms this: “When workers are at their offices, office hours seem to match those of the pre-pandemic years, but workers now tend to leave earlier on Fridays.”
But it’s not just Fridays. The evening commute is no longer a mass exodus at 17:00. Workers are customizing departure times to fit personal needs – picking up kids from aftercare, hitting the gym in Bryanston, stopping at Woolies in Illovo, or simply leaving before peak traffic.
What this reveals: The post-pandemic workplace negotiation in South Africa has resulted in a compromise where employers control the front end (arrival times, midweek presence) but employees retain meaningful autonomy on the back end (departure flexibility, Friday early finishes, Monday/Friday remote options).
This aligns with what’s being called the “triple-peak day” – South Africans work in the morning, again in the afternoon, and then log back in for a third session after dinner. Leaving Sandton at 15:30 doesn’t mean the workday is over; it continues from your home in Bryanston, Craighall, or Fourways in a more flexible format.
The Longer Commute Paradox: Why South Africans Are Driving Farther
One of the most revealing patterns in South African traffic data: commute distances and times are increasing despite hybrid work options.
People are traveling farther and spending more time getting to work – likely a result of pandemic-era moves to areas outside Johannesburg’s core. Even as companies bring employees back to physical offices, many workers are unwilling to give up the homes and lifestyles they gained during remote work.
This creates a fascinating tension. South African workers will endure longer commutes a few days per week to maintain lifestyle gains from remote work – bigger homes in Centurion or Kyalami, lower crime areas like Dainfern or Blue Hills, proximity to nature in the Cradle, better schools in Fourways.
The three-day office week with a 90-minute commute from Hartbeespoort or Cullinan each way is preferable to a five-day week with a 45-minute commute from Randburg if it means keeping the lifestyle upgrade.
The South African context: This pattern is particularly pronounced here where safety, schooling quality, and cost of living vary dramatically by area. The ability to live in a lower-cost, safer area like Centurion, Midstream, or even Hartbeespoort while maintaining access to Johannesburg or Pretoria employment is worth the trade-off of longer commutes on office days.
You’re spending more time in your car per trip, but fewer days per week. And for many South Africans, that math works out – especially when the alternative is moving back into expensive, higher-crime areas closer to work.
The Infrastructure Reality: South Africa’s Unique Challenges
South African hybrid work faces obstacles that global trends don’t fully capture, and Johannesburg workers know them intimately.
Load shedding remains a wild card. While most firms in Sandton, Rosebank, and Midrand have invested in backup generators or solar, many employees working from home in Roodepoort, Kempton Park, or Krugersdorp cannot afford these solutions. This creates a productivity inequality where remote work is more viable for higher-income workers or those employed by companies that provide backup power support.
Connectivity disparities are real. Working from home is easier in fibre-connected suburbs like Parkhurst, Linden, or Melville than in areas without reliable internet. South Africa’s inequality means remote work privilege is unevenly distributed, creating a two-tier workforce where some can negotiate flexibility and others cannot.
Public transport inadequacy forces car dependency. Johannesburg’s Gautrain helps some commuters along the Pretoria-Sandton-OR Tambo corridor, and the Rea Vaya bus network serves specific routes. But for most Johannesburg workers, the lack of reliable, safe public transport means car dependency. If you can’t afford a car, your job options shrink dramatically or your commute becomes exponentially longer and more dangerous.
These infrastructure realities mean that for many South African workers, the “return to office vs. remote work” debate isn’t about preference – it’s about practical constraints that make hybrid work a luxury rather than a universal option.
If you’re sitting in traffic on the N1 reading this on your phone (please keep your eyes on the road), you’re likely in the privileged category: employed, car-owning, with the option to negotiate some flexibility. For many South Africans, that’s not the reality.
What Wednesday Traffic Tells South African Employers
For HR professionals and business leaders, traffic patterns offer strategic insights you can’t ignore:
1. Midweek is mission-critical
If your workplace collaboration, key meetings, and team-building activities aren’t concentrated Tuesday through Thursday, you’re fighting against revealed preference. Design your culture around when people are actually present – and that’s Wednesday.
2. Friday flexibility is non-negotiable
The data is clear: South Africans knock off early on Fridays and prefer working remotely. Companies enforcing strict Friday office attendance in Johannesburg are swimming against a cultural current that predates the pandemic. Ask yourself: Is the battle worth losing talent over?
3. Mornings you control, evenings you don’t
Mandate arrival times if you must, but recognize that flexible departures are the pressure valve keeping the system functioning. Micromanaging when people leave Sandton for Fourways will drive talent loss.
4. Commute pain has limits
South African workers will tolerate longer commutes from Centurion or Kyalami for lifestyle gains, but only if remote options exist for at least two days per week. Pure five-day mandates will force relocation decisions – and many will choose to change employers rather than move closer to expensive, higher-crime inner suburbs.
5. Infrastructure inequality is your problem too
If your remote work policy assumes employees have reliable power and connectivity, you’re excluding large portions of potential talent. Companies that provide data stipends, backup power support, or access to co-working spaces in Centurion, Fourways, or Pretoria will win the flexibility war.
6. Traffic congestion is your employer brand problem
Johannesburg’s 55 hours lost to traffic (Cape Town’s 94 hours) isn’t just a municipal issue – it’s a quality-of-life issue affecting your recruitment and retention. Companies that offer flexibility are offering time back to employees. That’s not a perk in South Africa; it’s a competitive advantage.
The Bigger Picture: South Africa Isn’t Going Back
Despite CEO preferences and corporate mandates, the traffic data tells a clear story: South Africa is not returning to the rigid five-day, 9-to-5 office culture. Instead, a more fluid arrangement is emerging on Johannesburg’s roads:
- Midweek concentration: In-office work clusters Tuesday-Thursday for collaboration
- Edge-day flexibility: Mondays and Fridays see lighter office presence
- Arrival vs. departure control: Employers dictate start times; employees control finish times
- Sector bifurcation: High-skill sectors (especially tech) retain remote options; others revert to office-based work
- Lifestyle protection: Workers will commute farther less frequently to maintain pandemic-era lifestyle gains
- Infrastructure constraints: Load shedding and connectivity issues create unequal access to flexibility
This isn’t a return to 2019. It’s a new equilibrium – and it’s visible every Wednesday morning on the M1.
The Bigger Picture: South Africa Isn’t Going Back
Despite CEO preferences and corporate mandates, the traffic data tells a clear story: South Africa is not returning to the rigid five-day, 9-to-5 office culture. Instead, a more fluid arrangement is emerging on Johannesburg’s roads:
- Midweek concentration: In-office work clusters Tuesday-Thursday for collaboration
- Edge-day flexibility: Mondays and Fridays see lighter office presence
- Arrival vs. departure control: Employers dictate start times; employees control finish times
- Sector bifurcation: High-skill sectors (especially tech) retain remote options; others revert to office-based work
- Lifestyle protection: Workers will commute farther less frequently to maintain pandemic-era lifestyle gains
- Infrastructure constraints: Load shedding and connectivity issues create unequal access to flexibility
This isn’t a return to 2019. It’s a new equilibrium – and it’s visible every Wednesday morning on the M1.
What the Traffic Reveals: A Social Contract Under Renegotiation
Traffic congestion measures cars on the road, but it also maps the power dynamics of modern work. The patterns emerging from Johannesburg’s highways tell us:
Employers have won the battle for physical presence – morning traffic is back, midweek offices are full, and remote-only arrangements are declining.
Employees have won the battle for autonomy – flexible departures, Friday early finishes, Monday/Friday remote options, and the ability to live in Centurion or Hartbeespoort while working in Sandton.
The result? More traffic than 2021, less than 2019. Offices fuller on Wednesday, emptier on Friday. Longer commutes from farther suburbs, fewer days per week. Concentrated collaboration in Rosebank, dispersed execution from Randburg.
For South African workers, the question isn’t whether to accept this new reality – you’re already living it every time you sit in traffic on Wednesday morning and work from home on Friday afternoon.
For employers, the strategic question is how quickly you’ll adapt your policies, infrastructure, and culture to this emerging hybrid equilibrium.
Because every hour your employees spend sitting on the N1 is an hour they’re not spending with family in Fourways, pursuing health at Virgin Active, or building the energy they need to do great work. And every mandate that ignores the Wednesday phenomenon or the Friday tradition is a policy fighting against revealed human preference.
The road ahead isn’t a return to the past. It’s navigation of a new landscape where flexibility, purpose-driven presence, and infrastructure support will separate employers who attract top Johannesburg talent from those who watch it commute away – possibly to Cape Town’s tech scene or fully remote opportunities.
HR Future Staff writer.
