One company has fixed 343,000 potholes in South Africa’s richest city

Discovery Insure’s Pothole Patrol has repaired more than 343,000 potholes in Johannesburg since its launch five years ago. 

This comes as South Africa’s most important city is increasingly suffering under mismanagement and inadequate investment in infrastructure maintenance. 

The public-private partnership, formed in 2021, includes Discovery Insure, the Johannesburg Roads Agency, and Avis Southern Africa.

While one of the major aims was to show that public-private partnerships do work, it is also a physical representation of Discovery’s shared-value model. 

The repair of potholes benefits its Insure clients by reducing vehicle damage and benefiting thousands of other motorists, thereby also reducing claims and their severity. 

At the time of the partnership’s launch, Discovery estimated that potholes were costing South Africa around R650 million a year in damages, claims, and lost economic activity. 

Its Insure business was significantly impacted by the increasing number of claims, which pushed the financial services giant to try to tackle the issue. 

“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.”

As a result, pothole repair is a tangible sign of improvement, albeit on a small scale, with significant downstream effects. 

“Fewer potholes lead to fewer accidents, lower insurance claims, and a reduced maintenance burden on the city and help to turn symbols of decline into evidence of progress,” Gore said. 

So far, the partnership has used more than 104 tons of asphalt to repair 86,000 m² of road surface across Johannesburg. This roughly equates to 12 rugby fields. 

The problem has also turned out to be far more widespread than Discovery expected, with the company initially estimating that there were 100,000 potholes in Johannesburg in 2021. 

Since then, the partnership has repaired over three times that number of potholes, with many still to go. 

The Pothole Patrol in action

The Pothole Patrol is relatively sophisticated, not merely a team that drives around the city looking for damage to road infrastructure to fix. 

In launching the initiative, Discovery Insure used more than 22 billion km of driving data in Johannesburg to identify poor road conditions.

This data also showed that a major issue was that patched potholes did not stay fixed for long, with repairs often deteriorating within days. 

To ensure this would not happen with its repaired potholes, Discovery Insure tapped a company that specialises in road repairs to use a fleet of vehicles to fix parts of the city. 

“Our teams follow a strict repair process and continuously reinspect completed work to ensure potholes do not reopen,” Discovery Insure’s chief commercial officer, Precious Nduli, said. 

“That diligence has contributed to a repair success rate of more than 99% when tested after one year.” Discovery estimates that only 0.2% of the repaired potholes require further attention. 

The other element of the partnership is leveraging the experiences of Johannesburg residents, with Discovery creating an app for them to report road damage. 

Since launch, more than 90,000 potholes have been reported through the free Discovery Pothole Patrol app.

One resident alone has reported 1,493 potholes that have since been fixed – the highest number logged by an individual on the platform to date.

“That level of participation shows that people want to be part of improving the city. When residents report potholes through the app, they are playing an active role in helping make Johannesburg’s roads safer,” Nduli said. 

The work done between the public and private sectors in Johannesburg is a smaller example of the national-level cooperation between the two that is driving positive change. 

“I tell you this, from a South African perspective, we have seen some green shoots in the last few months. This is a function of the good work done by business and the government,” Gore said. 

“We have to nurture these green shoots. However, in this world, we have to think about self-interest now.”

“I am totally convinced about the rubric we have created about growth, jobs, and confidence. Whatever we do must be about creating economic growth that creates jobs and confidence.”

Confidence is particularly important for Gore, as it has the ability to create a self-fulfilling cycle and drive sustained economic growth. 

It is also one of the quickest ways to stimulate an economy without having to expend significant resources.