Transport Minister Chikunga launches Vala Zonke pothole 'war room'
Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga on Monday officially launched the Vala Zonke Roads war room that will monitor & manage all pothole repairs in the country.
The war room hub is located at the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) central operations centre in Centurion.
There are two applications (apps) linked to the operations of the war room; one is for the public to report potholes from anywhere in the country, by taking pictures and uploading them.
“It’s called the ‘Vala Zonke pothole app’, you can download it from Android as well as the iStore. It allows you as a member of the public, anywhere you are in the country, to take a photo of the pothole that you see and automatically that pothole reports into our database and gives us the coordinates of where you are,” Sanral chief executive officer Reginald Demana.
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The second app is for the more than 200 road authorities in provinces, municipalities, metros, and Sanral to act where potholes have been reported so that the repair and refurbishment responsibility is allocated to the relevant authority.
“The establishment of this War Room is both a bold and honest attempt we are making to fix road transport challenges presented by the potholes we see.
“Our collaboration across spheres of government towards fixing transport generally will always have to be fed organically by programmes and projects on the ground, while strengthening joint planning and budgeting efforts,” said Minister Chikunga.
Each province has been allocated at least two agents to collate data from the app and will work together with representatives from the relevant provincial departments.
EARLIER: Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga said as a developing country South Africa is doing well in terms of its road network when compared to developed countries. She says SA ranks 11 in the world in terms of the length of the country’s roads network #ValaZonke pic.twitter.com/YkD6qwuApJ
— Jacaranda News (@JacaNews) July 31, 2023
The fruition of the war room comes nearly a year since Chikunga’s predecessor, Fikile Mbalula launched the nationwide Vala Zonke campaign in August 2022, with Sanral as the implementing agency.
The National Pothole Repair Programme was instituted in line with directives of the Presidential Economic Retreat Resolutions of 31 May – 1 June 2022.
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