South Africa does not have enough paved roads to justify the claim that there are 25 million potholes, says the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral).

The roads agency released a statement yesterday, disputing claims made at the South African Roads Federation (Sarf) conference in Cape Town in October last year by one of the speakers, former Sarf president Mutshutshu Nxumalo.

“Given that South Africa has a paved network of 168 000 kilometres, 25 million would equate to 149 potholes for every kilometre, which is improbable and unlikely,” Sanral says.

“We do not dispute that South Africa has a pothole crisis and we remain committed to working with provinces and municipalities to address it. However, we must be realistic about the nature and extent of the problem.”

The roads agency says a lot of work have been done by municipalities and provincial departments to fix potholes.

“We are, however, unable to provide reliable statistics as to the exact number of potholes which have been repaired to date and will be requiring more administrative cooperation from the various authorities to actively report their progress,” says Sanral spokesperson Vusi Mona.

He emphasised that feedback and opinions are important to roads authorities because they reflect the experience of the people who use the roads.

“We take these seriously. But we must be careful when using statistical data so that we don’t exaggerate the challenges we are facing.”