There may be nine million bicycles in Beijing, according to Katie Melua’s popular song, but just how many potholes are on the roads in South Africa? This is the subject of current debate after national road agency Sanral rejected suggestions that the number could be as high as 25 million. Millions of potholes In a special statement yesterday, Sanral said it wanted to “clarify claims circulating in the public domain about SA having 25 million potholes”. The claim was made in October last year by former SA Street Federation (Sarf) president, Mutshutshu Nxumalo, who claimed there were more than 25…
There may be nine million bicycles in Beijing, according to Katie Melua’s popular song, but just how many potholes are on the roads in South Africa?
This is the subject of current debate after national road agency Sanral rejected suggestions that the number could be as high as 25 million.
Millions of potholes
In an extraordinary statement yesterday, Sanral said it wanted to “clarify claims circulating in the public domain about SA having 25 million potholes”.
The claim was made in October last year by former SA Roads Federation (Sarf) president, Mutshutshu Nxumalo, who claimed there were more than 25 million potholes on SA roads.
Sarf is a non-governmental organization dedicated, he said, to “promoting the road industry in SA by disseminating information, promoting sound policies and education and training”.
Sanral is not sure
Sanral said it “has reservations about this figure. As SA has a paved network of 168 000km, 25 million would equate to 149 potholes for every kilometre, which is impossible.
However, another statement from the organization the day before made the paved roads in this country 158 000km… so it seems to confuse itself.
Sanral spokesperson Vusi Mona added, “However, we do not deny that South Africa is experiencing a pothole crisis and we remain committed to working with provinces and municipalities to address them.
“However, we must be realistic about the nature and extent of the problem.”
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He said the agency was “unable to provide reliable statistics on the number of potholes repaired so far” and wanted better administrative cooperation by various provincial and local authorities on their progress in dealing with potholes.
‘Pothole application’
Sanral was appointed by the national transport department to run a national campaign to fix potholes, dubbed Operation Vala Zonke (fill it all in or cover everything).
The agency produces applications that can be reported by the general public. It said 51 271 people have downloaded the free application and reported 26 699 potholes.
The ‘pothole app’ allows the user to take a picture of the pothole, while the system automatically records the GPS location, sending the information to the appropriate authorities, depending on the location.
In the case of potholes on the national road network, Sanral said 618 potholes had been repaired or were still to be repaired by a self-imposed 48-hour deadline.
Mona said: “Sanral has done an assessment of the limited progress being made to fix potholes across the country. It is important to understand the legal mandates of the various levels of government, to know who is responsible for which roads, and to be clear on how to campaign to fix them. coordinated potholes.
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SA road network
The total road network in South Africa is about 750 000km, the longest among African countries and the 11th longest in the world.
The total length of paved roads is 158 000km or 168 000km, depending on which Sanral statement you believe.
Responsibility for building and maintaining the network is shared between Sanral and provincial and local authorities.
Sanral manages national roads and has a network of 23 512km of asphalt roads.
The ‘insurmountable’ challenge
Provinces are responsible for just over 270,000km (46,500km paved), while municipal networks account for just over 320,000km (nearly 88,000km paved) of the proclamation network.
The rest are unproclaimed gravel roads (mainly for rural communities) and are not owned or managed by road authorities.
Mona says the challenge is not insurmountable.
“The government remains committed to solving the problem. The solution is here, but it can only be effective if we all play a role.