New app for reporting potholes

Transport minister Fikile Mbalula has encouraged South Africans to report potholes on municipal and provincial roads on a newly-launched app to enable government to repair them speedily.

At the launch of Operation Vala Zonke, aimed at addressing potholes at all levels of government, the minister said the app could be downloaded on Google Playstore and the Apple App store.

“The app will work in conjunction with the South African National Roads Agency [Sanral] pothole management app and will allow the public to raise any issues, upload pictures of potholes, and provide real-time location of the road on an interactive map that will show the owners of the different roads.

“The app will also provide status updates on issues raised using a pothole ticketing system. The information then gets assigned to the relevant authority, depending on where the road is, and the maintenance depot responsible for that road attends to fixing the pothole,” Mbalula said.

As the implementing agency for this campaign, Sanral will closely monitor and assess the impact of the interventions over the next six months.

“This campaign will change the face of our municipal and provincial roads from potholeriddled to an acceptable state of repair,” he said.

“Sanral has a policy of fixing any reported potholes within 48 hours. While national roads are overwhelmingly in a pristine condition, we recognise that provincial and municipal roads require a decisive strategy . . .Fixing the potholes on the country’s roads is an enormous task, which will take time, but we are confident that through the coordinated approach led by Sanral we will be able to tackle this task . . .