Helen Zille explains R50,000 per pothole claim

Helen Zille explained that her claim that it costs the City of Johannesburg R50,000 to fix a pothole is based on a Daily Maverick interview with Busi Mavuso.

Zille, the DA’s mayoral candidate in the City of Johannesburg, shared this information following questions by Newsday.

Last week, Zille told Biznews that the City of Johannesburg spends R50,000 to fix a pothole, compared to the Pothole Patrol’s R5,000.

“The Pothole Patrol fills a pothole for R5,000 with everything taken into account, including wages, fuel, and vehicles,” she said.

“Johannesburg spends about R50,000 per pothole. Just multiply that across an entire system, and you will see what we are talking about.”

The only reference to this high cost came from Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) CEO Busi Mavuso in a Daily Maverick interview.

Mavuso stated that while a privately funded pothole repair costs about R7,500, the City of Johannesburg spends R65,000 per pothole.

However, this claim was retracted after the Johannesburg Roads Agency provided accurate figures on the city’s pothole repair costs.

The Johannesburg Roads Agency told Inside Metros that it repaired 97,938 potholes across the city during the 2025/26 financial year.

The cost to repair these potholes was R36 million, which equates to an average cost of R371.43 per pothole.

The Daily Maverick stated that its initial article “reflected incorrect costs of fixing potholes by both the private and public sectors”. “We apologise for the errors.”

Zille told Newsday that the R50,000 figure she quoted did indeed come from the Daily Maverick interview with Busi Mavuso.

“The figure came from a meeting attended by senior business people and based on the statistic quoted in the Daily Maverick interview with Busi Mavuso,” Zille said.

“Given that BLSA has direct knowledge of the costs of fixing potholes through the Pothole Patrol initiative, I accepted the statistic in good faith.”

“We should also remember that what it costs to fill a pothole is not necessarily the same as what the City pays to have a pothole repaired.”