TRANSPORT Minister Fikile Mbalula launched an operation to close potholes called Vala Zonke to save motorists’ tyres.
The operation was launched on Monday morning, 8 August, in Vanderbijlpark on the R57 road between Free State and Gauteng.
Mbalula officially launched the 16-month labour intensive programme spearheaded by the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) to close potholes on Mzansi roads.
“The Vala Zonke programme is targeting the potholes on the main roads, regional roads and the provinces.
“The campaign will allow motorists, through a new mobile app, to report potholes on roads nationwide.
“The public is also encouraged to report potholes on municipal and provincial roads,” he said.
“The app will allow the public to raise any issues, upload pictures of potholes, and provide real-time location of the road on an interactive map that will show the owners of the different roads.
“The app will also provide status updates on issues raised using a pothole ticketing system. The information then gets assigned to the relevant authority, depending on where the road is. The maintenance depot responsible for that road will then fix the pothole,” said Mbalula.
Smartphone users can download the newly launched Sanral Pothole App from Google Play store.
The minister said that the president has instructed him to launch this project nationally and bring in the necessary skills needed to fix potholes.
“You don’t only close the pothole for the cameras. If you do that, the pothole is closed and after two weeks heavy rains come and the pothole opens up again. The pothole engineering is linked to the lifespan of the road,” he said.
He urged the public to report any potholes in time so that the government can deal with them.