SANRAL Pothole app has bumpy start

You can now report potholes at the tap of a button with the SANRAL Pothole app designed and launched following Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula’s campaign against potholes around the county.

Mbalula launched operation Vala Zonke to repair plaguing potholes around the country.

The South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) will spearhead the operation under strict instructions to perform from the minister.

A budget of R11 billion was allocated to the maintenance project to be distributed across provinces.

The SANRAL Pothole App has landed shortly after, to log potholes with ease using the app interface.

With a tap, specify the location, provide a description with images and SANRAL will pick it up from there. Users will be updated on the progress of their complaint.

Some bad news for Android users as the app can be found only on the Apple store currently.  A search for the app using Google Playstore showed no results.

What else does the SANRAL Pothole app do?

Since SANRAL will co-ordinate the project with different provinces and municipalities, the app will notify the road agency where road repair needs to be done.

The app will provide status updates on issues raised using a pothole ticketing system.

“The information then gets assigned to the relevant authority, depending on where the road is, and the maintenance depot responsible for that road attends to fixing the pothole,” Mbalula said.

A monitoring and evaluation team has been put in place to enable SANRAL to generate audit reports.

This will form a record of the work done and turnaround time in attending to potholes.

“SANRAL has a policy of fixing any reported potholes within 48 hours. While national roads are overwhelmingly in a pristine condition, we recognise that provincial and municipal roads require a decisive strategy and active support to augment capacity gaps.”

“Potholes have remained a problem and have posed a danger to road users throughout the country. Potholes are particularly dangerous at night or in rainy weather,” Mbalula said.

Also read: Minister Fikile Mbalula’s plan to fill potholes in South Africa

The SANRAL Pothole app seems to have kicked off on a bumpy start with only a ratings and review score of 2.3 out of 5.

It seems there may be some glitches that need to be attended to as users have launched complaints within the first week of the apps announcement.

One reviewer who downloaded the app wrote: “[There’s] No place to register. Can’t sign in, only has that function. How do I register if it does not give that option”

Another reviewer wrote: “Optimize it for older phones. I’m running iOS 14.8.1. All I can see is login screen [and I’m] unable to move up the screen to see create account.”

The app requires iOS 13.0 or later for an iPad, iOS 13 or later for the iPhone, iPod touch, while the Mac requires macOS 11.0 or later with an Apple M1 chip or later.

The SANRAL Pothole app is free and is 17.2 MB in size.

You can download the pothole app right now from the iOS App Store. Now is the time to #ValaZonke #KwalaKaofela pic.twitter.com/HXZbP0Capw

— SANRAL (@SANRAL_za) August 11, 2022

Feature image: SANRAL/screenshot