Putting an end to the pothole saga

Following the neverending nightmare of potholes that have plagued Johannesburg motorists, the chairperson of transport in the City of Joburg, Wendy Alexander, revealed a set of actions that the city would utilise to better the quality of roads and infrastructure.

The transport committee had visited various parts of the city during the last few months. Some of the areas include Chartwell, Booysens, and Diepsloot. Their visit to Diepsloot highlighted ‘the atrocious conditions of the road within the Diepsloot community.

The majority of the city’s roads have been punctured with potholes where motorists have appealed for better quality roads to drive on for over two decades. “The city is taking steps to get on top of the quality of our road infrastructure, in a number of ways”, said Alexander.

She revealed the first initiative would be to increase both the operational and capital budgets for 2022/23. “However, these budgets alone are not enough to get on top of the city’s massive backlog.
“Secondly, the city has taken a proactive approach and reached out to the private sector to assist with maintenance on the roads and this
initiative had already started to yield results, doubling the number of potholes repaired daily.
“Thirdly, the city has also relaunched its A Re Sebetseng programme, the focus at the moment is on roads.”
According to Alexander, this approach was geographically focused and aimed to deal with long-outstanding issues.

She confirmed that residents should begin to feel and see slight improvements but explained that erasing 20 years of neglect, road repair and maintenance would take years to correct.

“Together we can assist JRA by highlighting challenges and issues to ensure that we can build and maintain the roads we all deserve.”

Residents are encouraged to report all road issues to the Johannesburg Roads Agency via Hotline@jra.org.za

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