One South African company fixed over 320,000 potholes in Johannesburg

Discovery’s Pothole Patrol has repaired over 320,000 potholes in Johannesburg using private-sector skills, technology and data. 

First launched in 2021 in partnership with the City of Johannesburg and Dial Direct, Discovery aimed to rid the city of potholes, which were then estimated at around 100,000. 

Dial Direct has since been replaced by Avis, as the decay of Johannesburg’s roads has proven to be far more severe than initially expected. 

Discovery CEO Adrian Gore said that at the time of the patrol’s launch, potholes were costing South Africa around R650 million a year. 

The company’s Discovery Insure business was also being hit by an increasing number of claims relating to damage caused by potholes. 

Gore explained during Discovery’s results presentation for the 2025 financial year that this presented an opportunity for the company to implement its shared-value model in the real world. 

The repair of potholes would naturally benefit Discovery’s short-term insurance business through reduced claims, while also benefiting the lives of ordinary individuals. 

Gore added that the initiative would help Discovery’s competitors, as they would also benefit from reduced claims from their clients. 

In a recent social media post, Gore unpacked the initiative further and explained how it has managed to repair 42 kilometres-worth of potholes in Johannesburg. 

“When we launched the pothole initiative back in 2021, it was to solve an obvious and widespread problem that affected not only our clients, but other insurers and broader society,” Gore said. 

“Potholes were causing frustration, damage, and a sense that the economic hub of the country was in serious and irreparable decline.” 

Joburg’s roads are notorious for their poor condition, with the city’s summer rains resulting in significant damage to infrastructure that has been inadequately maintained and upgraded. 

Potholes erode further the longer the area is exposed to weather elements, high traffic volumes, and poor maintenance. As a result, they become more damaging for road users. 

The increased frequency and severity of damages have impacted short-term insurers, resulting in strong financial motivation to repair potholes.

Gore revealed the immense progress the initiative has made, with over 320,000 potholes being filled at a rate of 75,000 per year. 

As a result, Discovery Insure’s pothole claim frequency has reduced by 26% since the initiative began. Gore said these savings alone are enough to justify the initiative. 

How it works

In his social media post, Gore explained how the Pothole Patrol works and the extensive effort it puts into ensuring the damage to the roads does not recur. 

One of the major issues with Joburg’s roads is the often poor repair jobs done on the surface, with short-term fixes not lasting much longer than a few days during summer. 

Pothole repairs in the city tend to be inadequate and create fresh danger in the form of substantial humps in some parts of the road. 

Discovery aimed to create an immediate improvement in pothole-related incidents that would last and not fall into disrepair. 

Gore explained that the first thing Discovery focused on was getting the right skills and technology to fix the potholes. 

“Upon investigation, we realised that one of the major issues was that patched potholes did not stay fixed for long,” Gore said. 

As a result, Discovery tapped a company that specialises in pothole repairs and that a had a fleet of vehicles with specialised equipment. 

Discovery did not only bring funding and management support to the party, with the company using its extensive data capabilities to aid the repair of potholes. 

“We used our data capabilities to integrate citizen reporting and our own data to identify the most severe potholes requiring urgent action,” Gore explained. 

“We developed an app that enabled the public to report potholes, using geolocation technology to capture the exact location of the pothole and track already-reported potholes.”

Discovery is famous for its extensive dataset and it leveraged the telematics data from its insurance business to more accurately track the condition of roads. 

Discovery Insure, at the time the pothole initiative launched, had over 14 billion kilometres’ worth of telematics data it could leverage. 

Gore said less than 0.2% of repaired potholes require further attention, thanks to the use of this data and improved repair technology.