The South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) says the first six months of the Department of Transport's Vala Zonke campaign had shown some success in providing the public with a single pothole reporting app that can be used on all roads in South Africa, and providing a centralised consolidated view of all reported potholes that enables focused engagements between relevant authorities to fix potholes.

However, a massive inter-governmental effort will be needed to overcome the scourge of potholes on a much wider scale, says Sanral spokesperson Vusi Mona.

“Operation Vala Zonke has not come without its challenges. For example, getting data from the other roads authorities is still a challenge, though progress is being made in this regard,” he adds.

Sanral was appointed as the coordinating agency to drive the campaign, which included the harmonisation of all data and information on potholes and providing the technology and technical knowledge to ensure quality delivery on the campaign.

The agency launched the Sanral Pothole App for the public to be able to report potholes easily. About 51 271 citizens downloaded the free application and reported about 26 699 potholes.

The Pothole App allows a user to take a picture of the pothole and the system automatically records the Global Positioning System location, eventually sending the information to the relevant authority.

South Africa’s total road network is estimated at 750 000 km. Responsibility for building and maintaining the network is divided between Sanral, and provincial and local government authorities. The agency manages national roads and has a network of 23 512 km of paved roads. Provinces are responsible for just more than 270 000 km, with 46 500 km paved, while the municipal network is estimated at just more than 320 000 km, with nearly 88 000 km paved, of the network, says Mona.

The national campaign to fix potholes Operation Vala Zonke was launched on August 8, 2022, with a call for a joint effort by the nine provinces and all 278 municipalities, comprising eight metropolitan, 44 district and 226 local municipalities. The Department of Transport also called on the private sector and the public to assist in eradicating potholes on South Africa’s roads, he points out.

“As the coordinating agency for the Vala Zonke campaign, Sanral has done an assessment of the limited progress made in fixing potholes across the country. It is important to understand the legal mandates of the various spheres of government and who is responsible for which roads, and to be clear about how the campaign to fix potholes is coordinated,” says Mona.

Meanwhile, a total of 618 potholes have been reported on Sanral roads to date, with 475 of these in the Northern Region, 72 in the Eastern Region, 60 in the Southern Region and 11 in the Western Region.

“All these were fixed and those that haven’t are still within the 48-hour widow that we have set ourselves at Sanral,” says Sanral engineering executive Louw Kannemeyer.