To enhance South Africa’s roads, and create a nation of good drivers, Discovery Insure Pothole Patrol visited Glenhazel on September 3 to assist the cap green team in a blitz to repair potholes in the area.

Discovery chief commercial officer Precious Nduli explained that the pothole initiative began in 2021. “It is in partnership with the City of Johannesburg and Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA). The Discovery Insure Pothole Patrol is made up of approximately 40 people, with eight vehicles carrying the required material and visiting the sites.”

Read more: Craighall Residents Association keeps its suburb clean by fixing the potholes in the area

Nduli added that the team fixes potholes in and around Johannesburg, which is part of its mandate: To fix potholes not more than one square meter wide, and not more than three centimetres deep.

To date, they’ve fixed over 300 000 potholes in four years.

@caxtonjoburgnorth Discovery pothole patrol operation is underway in Glenhazel. Video: Asanda Matlhare #CommunityMatters #potholes #discoveryinsure #discovery #rosebankKillarneyGazette ♬ original sound – Caxton Joburg North

Residents and community members are urged to download the app, either from the app store or Google Play, to report potholes. The Pothole Patrol team also drives around regularly to conduct their own inspections.

Also read: Pothole claims are mounting in South Africa

“We also have telematics data,” noted Nduli, “which we share with the team to target high volume roads, roads that have a lot of claims for potholes.” She said that they see it help, in terms of the number of claims going down in those areas.

The Pothole Patrol operations manager, Joshua Radebe, discouraged the public from repairing potholes on their own. “Some people use concrete, which does more harm than good because it doesn’t expand nor last long. Sometimes we find potholes filled with bricks. When we arrive at the site, we’ll rake everything out, and then pour in the material we use to repair the pothole.”

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