OPERATION VALA ZONKE AKA THE WAR ON POTHOLES

The importance of road infratructure in any economy cannot be over-emphasised. Unlike in other forms of transport infrastructure, it is compulsory and not optional for all citizens; from the poorest to the richest.

The challenges of re-distribution of the government spending whilst addressing escalating economic factors has left roads, like other forms infrastructure, poorly maintained while it ages. Consequently bad roads are high on the citizen’s complaint list. To arrest the deterioration of roads the Programme “Operation Vala Zonke” was launched on 8 August 2022 in Gauteng with all other provinces simultaneously launching their own rollout programmes.

At the end of July 2023 the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) launched the Operation Vala Zonke War Room, to take the fight against potholes to the next level.

Ageing roads infrastructure

“Most of the South African road network has reached its 20-year-design lifespan with the maintenance backlog estimated to be R197 billion,” said Minister of Transport Ms Sindisiwe Chikunga at the launch of the War Room. “To ensure that the roads are managed within a framework of national norms and standards to maximise their role in enabling economic activity and access to social amenities, the Cabinet mandated us to roll out a national pothole programme under the stewardship of SANRAL.”

The national drive to fix potholes across all nine provinces necessitated a collaborative engagement between all spheres of government leadership including Provincial Premiers, MECs as well as members of SALGA to formalise steps to be taken collectively.

Vala Zonke is a labourintensive programme to fix potholes throughout South Africa.The rollout of this programme is the implementation of an integrated, rigorous and comprehensive plan that will drive interventions to ensure that the Department of Transport improves the overall condition index of roads at local and provincial authorities.

The minister continued: “The very birth of this War Room remains a strong indication of the severity of the situation, especially expressed in the state of our road network and evidence of this is highlighted by worsening traffic congestions and dangerous driving conditions or other road uses in urban and peri-urban areas.” with it the following benefits:

• Effective communication between members of the team and the public.

• Information can be managed easily through visual presentation, which will be conveyed more effectively with visualization of the data and facts. Specialists here will be able to analyse the data and respond appropriately.

• Better Focus as the team is there for the sole purpose of focussing on the Vala Zonke project and will not be distracted by any other issues.

• Better Interaction Between People, because the war room team will grow and develop better collaborative interactions between themselves, which can increase the chances of success. The room will work as one, and the focus of the people is on the same thing.

• One Stop Centre - The Vala Zonke war room will be the central hub where all pothole-related issues will be addressed and resolved. This will be done in real time as information flows into the centre and responded to expeditiously.

“There are over 250 road authorities in the country, there is a need to create a single portal for the public to report potholes and for this system to automatically redirect the complaint to the correct roads authority down to the correct maintenance depot level and to have a monitoring, tracking and feedback system in place,” Minister Chikunga continued.

Single point of contact

A new pothole web app was launched which the public can use to report potholes in their vicinity. Images can be uploaded, details of the problem, as well as real-time location of the road where the issue is raised on an interactive map that will show the owners of the different roads, as well as get status updates on issues raised using a pothole ticketing system. The app works in conjunction with the War

Room. Once the War Room receives the information, it is assigned to the relevant authority responsible for that part of the road and progress can be tracked.

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; minimising the prevalence of ‘ghost potholes.’

SANRAL was given the responsibility of the war room because the issue being addressed is a national challenge, albeit it has to be addressed at municipal level as well. Moreover the agency 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.

A national collaborative effort "Closing potholes before they deteriorate further is a crucial intervention that must stand as a flagship of what is possible through effective interdepartmental cooperation, especially with integrated planning and budgeting towards common goals,” the minister added. “Where we have seen bottlenecks in effectively rolling out this programme nationally, there continue to be robust discussions to ensure that our pothole repair program is a success.”

Stressing the severity of the challenges involved with the local road network, with a high number of deaths and damage to vehicles having been attributed to increased accidents on roads, Chikunga stated that the DoT had recently visited and inspected a number of national roads.

“The benefit for our country will not just be better and safer roads to travel on, it will be longer life for their vehicles as well employment opportunities because Operation Vala Zonke is based on labour-intensive pothole repair systems,” Minister Chikunga concluded.

On its website this month operation Vala Zonke recorded over 91 000