SA has ‘more than 25 million’ potholes

He says over the past seven years the number of potholes has increased by about 10 million.

It costs government or a municipality between R700 and R1500 per square meter to fix a pothole.

Former SARF Chair Mutshutshu Nxumalo says strong procurement strategies are needed to address the backlog in fixing the potholes.

"Unfortunately, what we do also because we have not been maintaining our infrastructure very well, we have neglected the infrastructure for too long.  The problems have become huge, and that's why we have the programmes that government is trying to put forward to address the backlog.

“It also needs a strong procurement strategy to solutions that will work so you can be able to track what you have done and if there are any warranty issues on the work that contractors have done, so you can follow them to come and fix again where things have not gone well. 

"Which is why we need to comply with the general reporting and accounting to see where our money went."

Nxumalo says government needs to work with the private sector.

"It is only through partnerships with the private sector that it will happen, because in my instance, I have got the infrared system that we got from the United Kingdom where we repair pothole permanently by stitching the old section to the new section, but when the government needs a solution it needs to be a multi-approached situation, as government does not have capacity."

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