POLL | Do you think reporting potholes works?

As many people make their way home from their holiday destinations over the festive season, the state of South Africa's roads is again in the spotlight.

TimesLIVE reported on a patchy stretch of gravel and tar between KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, which has been described as “the worst road in South Africa”.

The transport department has reportedly paid almost R90m to refurbish the road. The first phase of the project was suspended in November last year because of “inadequacies in the original design, community disruptions and Covid-19”.

The Sunday Times recently reported on a roads crisis, with infrastructure on the verge of collapse and costing the economy.

Prof Yunus Ballim of Wits University's school of civil and environmental engineering said much of the concrete road infrastructure in Johannesburg is more than 70 years old and deteriorating.

Several initiatives have been taken to report potholes, with some saying reporting works and others labelling it a waste of time.

Cape Town MMC for urban mobility Rob Quintas said potholes are fixed when reported but the number of complaints does not necessarily reflect the number of potholes.

“It is difficult to draw inferences about the trends as we had a slowdown in reporting during the Covid-19 lockdown. Over the past financial year we have received more than 39,000 complaints about potholes.

“The city strives to make a pothole safe within 24 hours of it being reported. A permanent repair will be made within 15 days, weather permitting. Water is the No 1 cause of potholes and other damage to our roads infrastructure.”

The Pothole Patrol, a partnership between the City of Johannesburg,  Discovery Insure and Dialdirect Insurance, said in May last year it had repaired more than 100,000 potholes since its launch a year before.

In August, transport minister Fikile Mbalula launched Operation Vala Zonke to address the problem of potholes. 

The 16-month programme includes a mobile app where users can report potholes and receive status updates on repairs.

TimesLIVE

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.