In the video which was posted on Twitter, a young boy can be seen immersing a stick into the pothole to determine the depth of the massive crater.

The father then tells his son to remove the stick to show how deep the pothole was.

This man’s son almost drowned in a pothole. In a pothole. pic.twitter.com/RRPzUTEqNL

— Mmusi Maimane (@MmusiMaimane) January 5, 2023

Deep pothole

From observations, the pothole seemed to be the height of a young child.

In the video, the father warned the Rustenburg municipality to cordon off the pothole.

“I want to give you a very stringent warning, if you do not barricade this in the next four hours… My son nearly drowned,” he said.

Repaired

The massive pothole has since been repaired.

The municipality said the hole formed after a leak was reported at Rapoo Street in TIhabane.

“A water unit foreman was dispatched to assess the leak. Upon arrival on site, it was identified that the top soil collapsed and exposed the pipe leak due to the pressure of the leak. The foreman proceeded to allocate the complaint to the team and the team arrived on site. The pipe leak was repaired and the excavation was barricaded,” it said.

Potholes repairs

In August, Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula rolled out what the department of transport called a 16-month labour-intensive programme, spearheaded by the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral), to address potholes in the country. 

The campaign allows motorists, through a new mobile app, to report craters on roads nationwide.

Mbalula encouraged the public to report craters on municipal and provincial roads on the newly launched app in order to enable the government to repair them speedily.

The Citizen