EDITORIAL | Dodge that pothole but don’t dare fix it

Johannesburg has issued a clear instruction to its residents. Ordinary people trying to help are now the target of municipal zeal.

After years of motorists perfecting the art of zig-zag driving and dodging large craters the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) has an uncompromising message. Not a maintenance plan. Not a resurfacing blitz. A warning. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to fix a pothole. Not with sand. Not with bricks. Not with cold mix. Not even with the naive hope that the state might appreciate the gesture. Touch that road surface without legal permission, you risk fines, equipment seizure or arrest.

Imagine the holding cell conversation. “What are you in for?”

The JRA frames the restrictions as a matter of safety and technical standards. Improvised repairs using sand, bricks, or unsuitable mixes can break up, create loose debris and damage vehicles. They can also allow water to penetrate the road base and cause deeper structural damage.

The risk of hitting buried services such as gas lines, fibre cables, water pipes and electrical networks when digging without proper oversight is real. Those are legitimate concerns that justify careful, professional work.

“Using incorrect materials such as sand or bricks can create loose debris, crack windscreens and endanger motorists and cyclists. It also exposes the JRA to public liability claims for work not undertaken by our teams,” CEO Zweli Nyathi said. “We remain committed to safe, liveable roads. The most effective way to help is to report defects through our formal channels so our professional teams can respond decisively.”

That devotion to engineering excellence reads as rich when the agency treats road maintenance like a seasonal hobby. Repairs happen when the political weather is perfect. The liability argument is a farce. The city fears liability for work it did not perform while avoiding responsibility for the damage caused by its own inaction.

The JRA has invented a governance paradox. Citizens who act to reduce immediate dangers are exposed to legal and financial risk, while the underlying problem of deferred maintenance remains unaddressed. We end up with tension between safe, technically sound repairs and the public’s frustration with slow municipal responses.

The reassurance about reporting potholes to the city from Nyathi reads reasonable on paper, but it leaves important questions unanswered. Are reporting channels accessible to everyone, or do professionals respond quickly, if at all? Who bears the cost of everyday safety when systems fail? These are not trivial questions, they go to the heart of the governance of the city.

To be sure, residents are still invited to partner with the city, but that invitation comes with conditions. Apply for a permit, wait for approval, co-ordinate with officials and bring the patience of a monk. Active citizenship is welcome when it arrives with paperwork. This is impractical and places an administrative burden on people who are, in good faith, trying to reduce harm in their neighbourhoods. When a tyre is shredded on a busy road, the last thing people want is a bureaucratic relay.

Beyond the immediate policy questions, the issue is that the City of Johannesburg values process and control more than practical outcomes. There is also an element of controlling the narrative. JRA does not object to citizens filling potholes. It objects to losing control of the story. Community-led pothole fixes force officials such as Nyathi to confront the consequences of deferred maintenance. That is embarrassing.

So, the message is that the JRA does not mind if you dodge potholes, complain about potholes, or sacrifice a suspension to potholes. Just do not fix them. That is illegal.