South Africa’s struggle with pothole-strewn roads appears to be never ending as it grapples with a reported 25 million and rising vehicle insurance claims relating to damage caused by small to massive sinkholes.
Watch: The now famous “Urban Safari” clip
Case of the 15 million
In a survey conducted last year by insurance company Dialdirect, it was revealed that pothole related claims shot up by 15%, while enquires involving damaged tyres rose by 9% compared to 2021.
Additionally, the report found that the rate of pothole presence had gone up by 10 million since 2017, and that Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal had been the worst affected with around 21% of claims coming from the city.
“Dodging potholes has fast become a professional sport, but doing so can, and sometimes does, result in car accidents,” Dialdirect’s Head of Insurance, Anneli Retief, said in a statement at the time.
“One bad patch of road could lead to punctures, tyre bulges, bad wheel alignment and balancing, uneven tyre wear, cracked rims, damaged undercarriage, damaged tyre walls, and blowouts”.
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According to Retief, while efforts of the Pothole Patrol had been remarkable with over 100 000 holes repaired since 2021, “more needs to be done to protect motorists and fill the gap in other provinces”.
In August last year, then transport minister, and now African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Fikile Mbalua, launched a newly developed pothole app supposed to alert authorities as to where potholes are located and to be fixed without hesitation.
“You don’t only close the pothole for cameras… The pothole is closed after two weeks – the heavy rains come [and] the potholes open up. The pothole engineering is linked to the lifespan of the road,” Mbalula said at the launching of the app in Vanderbijlpark as part of Operation Vala Zonke.
Recently though, the rate of pothole emergence has seen frustrated South Africans take matters into their own hands by filling the holes using their own equipment, while others poked fun at the problem by uploading videos on social media showing how it could be used to incite humour.
Johannesburg’s damage
The apparent funny factor hasn’t been welcomed by everyone though, and while it placed fifth in the mentioned survey behind Pretoria (20%), Potchefstroom (17%) and Bloemfontein (15%) with pothole claims last year of 14%, the City of Johannesburg (COJ) has admitted to having its fair share of pothole run-ins, with the Johannesburg Roads Agency revealing that 233 claims were submitted during the third quarter of last year as a result of pothole damage.
Confirming the figures to The Citizen, JRA spokesperson Zoleka Jika said a total of R24 863 137 had to be forked out during the third quarter of 2022 for vehicle damages claims caused by potholes. In addition, she also revealed that in February this year alone, 12 281 potholes were reported across the city.
Jika, however, stated that it is “doing reactive maintenance of roads and working in conjunction with the COJ, Discovery and DialDirect to assist with reduction of potholes in the in the city”.
How to submit a claim
She further stated that motorists, whose vehicle had been damaged due to potholes, need to visit the Johannesburg Roads Agency’s website in order to fill-out a document when submitting a claim. A link to the document in question can be seen and downloaded by clicking on the provided link.
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Compiled by Charl Bosch