Given the prevalence of potholes, sometimes craters, that dog South Africa’s roads, perhaps Waze should stop warning drivers about them and let those behind the wheel know that the next stretch of road doesn’t require a 4x4 to navigate.
The sheer extent of the problem is shown by how many potholes are being filled. The latest information, from 2022, shows that the government’s Operation Vala Zonke has filled almost 200,000 potholes: almost two-thirds of these are in Johannesburg.
As Tando Ngibe, senior manager at Budget Insurance, said: “Dodging potholes has increasingly become a professional sport, but doing so can, and sometimes does, result in car accidents. Even if hitting a pothole doesn’t cause an accident, the damage incurred is significant.”
Ernest North, co-founder of Naked Insurance, explained that the combination…
