All reported potholes fixed within 14 days in 2025 – SANRAL

The Department of Transport reported to parliament in its 2024/2025 annual report that it repaired 100% of potholes within 14 days of being reported to them. 

Reporting to the Select Committee on Public Infrastructure in November, the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) said that all potholes that were reported on the SANRAL app were patched within 14 days. 

Chairperson of the Committee, Frederik Badenhorst, questioned the Department on the repairs, asking if the committee could be given a breakdown of how many potholes were repaired in each province. 

The Department’s Acting Director General, Mathabatha Mokonyama, said that this information is not available, but that the department can source documents to indicate how many square metres were repaired in each province. 

“SANRAL has got this app where they claim about 14 days’ response, and the provinces are able to deposit information in there,” he said.

SANRAL is mandated to maintain South Africa’s national road network, consisting of major routes connecting cities and provinces, with some large provincial and municipal roads.

Provinces and municipalities are then in charge of maintaining their own, smaller roads. 

SANRAL’s annual report does not align with the perspective of the Automobile Association (AA) Spokesperson, Eleanor Mavimbela, who said that the problem of potholes has gotten worse this year. 

Speaking to Newzroom Afrika in May 2025, Mavinmbela said that she estimates the country has well over the estimated 25 million potholes. 

This has increased by 67% over the last five years. “It’s not just an inconvenience anymore,” she said.

“Potholes have the potential to damage your tyres, your rims, suspension of your vehicle, as well as – if they are quite big – the body of your vehicle. Recently, in the City of Johannesburg, we’ve seen incidents where potholes lead to fatal crashes.”

SANRAL reported having paid out R15 million to motorists to compensate them for damages due to accidents caused by potholes between 2023 and 2025.

While SANRAL manages main roads, much of South Africa’s pothole problem falls to the responsibility of local municipalities.

Not just an inconvenience anymore

Mavimbela said that a lack of urgency from municipalities in dealing with potholes, as well as a reactive maintenance strategy, has caused a situation where potholes have become a serious and worsening problem.

She said that the government’s approach of patching up potholes has actually made the problem worse, because they are not using materials strong enough to withstand the high traffic volumes of South Africa’s roads and adverse weather. 

This leads to potholes recurring and widening. “Then they allude to a lack of budget to account for the number of potholes we have to deal with,” she said. 

“We, as the AA, definitely do think that we need to start dealing with road infrastructure safety as a priority task. It should stand right there with the healthcare budget.”

Mavimbela acknowledged, however, that the problem can lie in residents failing to report potholes to their municipality.

“Basically, we are dealing with a backlog of potholes,” she said. 

On a municipal level, South Africa’s city authorities are in charge of repairing potholes. This year in July, Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero launched the “war on potholes” campaign. 

He said at the time that it would cost the city R700 million to fix all of its potholes. 

Discovery Insure launched its Pothole Patrol in 2021 and has since repaired over 300,000 potholes for the city by September 2025.

It said that before this, potholes cost South Africans R650 million in vehicle damage in 2021 alone. 

This is the equivalent of providing education for 30,000 children for a year. 

In the City of Cape Town, on the other hand, residents report an average of 1,400 potholes to the city each month.