Government has heard the cry of road users and business when it comes to the impact of potholes on their road safety and motor vehicle operating costs. As a government we had to respond to this cry as it is our responsibility to make sure that services are delivered to our people.

There also will be increased road safety and reduction in motor vehicle operating costs. From the programme itself jobs will be created and there will be business opportunities for those involved in the roads construction sector.

Services are not being duplicated, but this is a collaborative effort. SANRAL has been tasked to be the leading implementing agency but working together with the others spheres of government. If anything, there will be improved efficiency in the use of government resources.

Provinces have a share in the provincial road maintenance grant (PRMG). The money will be sourced from that grant. When it comes to local government the National Department of Transport is engaging with the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) on how the project will be cascaded and be funded at local government level. But it must be understood that at the end of the day South Africa has one fiscus as it is not a Federal State.

There is a national launch on the 8th of August which will be accompanied by provincial launches where political principals will join maintenance teams for purposes of fixing the potholes. Members of the public will be encouraged to report potholes using a Public App; those reports will then be assigned to maitenance teams across the provinces who will go out to fix the reported potholes.

The first cycle will run for six months with focus on potholes, after which there will be an evaluation. The next cycle will kick in thereafter with wider focus on road maintenance in general through the Public App. The intention is for the Public App to remain a permanent reporting channel going forward. It must be emphasised though that potholes are a symptom and not the underlying problem. The long-term solution will be to ensure preventative maintenance across all road networks to reduce occurrence of potholes.

SANRAL will only be doing the procurement where no existing arrangements are in place at provincial and local authority level and then only if a Memorandum of Agreement has been entered into between SANRAL and the relevant authority for SANRAL to act as implementing agent on their behalf.

We have anti-corruption lines across government and these, among others, will be used to report corruption. Also, there is a verification process built into the APP through the use of Geotagged photos that are date and time stamped to ensure that the reported potholes do indeed exist before funds are deployed.

SANRAL has a relatively good road network and it is believed that some of its best practices and digital tools used can be shared with the other spheres of government to the benefit of all road users. Where there is a skills challenge, SANRAL will assist with the transfer of skills to other spheres of government.