Crater city: Inside Gauteng’s growing pothole crisis
The roads beneath us are cracking—literally. Across Johannesburg and beyond, potholes are turning daily commutes into obstacle courses, damaging cars, risking lives, and revealing just how neglected our infrastructure has become. From overwhelmed road agencies to a lack of funds and mounting public frustration, the problem runs deeper than it seems.
In this HOT 1027 News exclusive, Natasha Thorp investigates the causes, consequences, and cracks in the system that brought us here. This is Crater City—a journey into the heart of Gauteng’s road crisis, and the fight to fix what’s broken beneath our wheels.
With the G20 approaching, Gauteng’s crumbling roads and infrastructure have suddenly shot to the top of the political agenda, even though, we’ve been living like this for more than a decade. HOT 1027’s Natasha Thorp has more…
Gauteng’s roads have been disintegrating for years, but officials say they’re hard at work “proactively” managing repairs across the province’s vast network of roads.
With massive backlogs, limited resources, and roads deteriorating by the day, is there any real plan to fix the problem?
Last month, Finance MEC for Gauteng Lebogang Maile, tabled a multi-billion Rand budget – but the question remains: Is the money allocated to fix our roads being properly managed? Or will potholes keep swallowing our roads and our tax money
A motorbike delivery driver lost his life in a crash believed to have been caused by a pothole. The driver was killed in North Riding on Blandford road, which has been riddled with potholes for weeks, if not months. Officials say the bike was behind a car, which slowed down to avoid a pothole and the bike then clipped the rear end of that vehicle. Tragically, the bike then collided with another car travelling in the opposite direction.
In a recent chat with Marina Constas from Better Bedfordview, she shared how their initiative has gone beyond improving just one suburb. The team has compiled a comprehensive playbook designed to guide other communities in establishing their own “Better” initiatives. This professionally created handbook, which they offer freely via email to Better Bedfordview, outlines the necessary steps and structures—such as forming an NPO, obtaining a Section 18A certificate, and setting up six key committees. Marina emphasized that real impact happens when suburbs collaborate and share resources, rather than working in isolation. Their goal is to empower neighborhoods across the country with a tried-and-tested model for community upliftment.
Potholes aren’t just damaging cars, they’re driving up insurance claims, and pushing up costs for already overstretched Gauteng motorists.
Insurers say Joburg and Pretoria now account for more than a third of the country’s pothole-related claims, and the numbers keep rising.
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