Johannesburg – The lives of Mogale City residents and motorists remain in danger from sinkholes that continue to swallow roads, driving businesses away and costing jobs.
This was the assessment of the Democratic Alliance (DA), which conducted an oversight inspection yesterday, Tuesday, 14 October 2025.
Commenting on the inspection, Evert Du Plessis, the DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Roads and Logistics, said at the R563 road, “we discovered that the sinkhole that first appeared in February 2025 had not been repaired”.
Du Plessis said, instead, it has been allowed to expand from the edge of the road to nearly its centre, posing a threat to motorists using this provincial road.
“Despite this being a crisis, the response from Gauteng MEC for Roads, Transport, Kedibone Diale-Tlabela, has been sluggish and nearly non-existent,” Du Plessis said.
“The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng reiterates its demand for Diale-Tlabela to urgently repair these roads, posing a danger to motorists and pedestrians.”
Residents are also complaining about damage to their tyres and the lack of streetlighting, contributing to accidents.
Compounding these challenges, the road is on unstable dolomitic ground prone to sinkholes, with an underlying cave system increasing the risk of collapse.
“We also found that the road is currently in use, contributing to its ongoing deterioration. Furthermore, no rehabilitation work is being done on this road,” Du Plessis said.
“This contradicts an official statement by the Department of Roads and Transport, which claimed that the road has been closed since Friday, 10 October 2025, and that ‘appointed service providers have been making steady progress’.”
Du Plessis said the DA also inspected the R374 road near the Cradle Valley Hotel and between Kloofzicht and Glenburn Lodge in Zwartkops, where a sinkhole remains unrepaired since surfacing in March 2025.
This busy road sees around 6 000 cars each weekend, along with numerous cyclists, as people make their way to various holiday spots in and around Maropeng – Cradle of Humankind.
“This road is littered with potholes and has become a site for many accidents,” Du Plessis said.
“The poor state of these roads is not only affecting residents but is also driving businesses away and costing jobs.”
While sinkholes are complex to manage, it is unacceptable that it has taken over eight months to get geo-specialists on the ground to assess the situation and implement their recommended remedial action at R563 road.
Du Plessis said the department’s failure to repair the Zwartkops R374 road, which was also devastated by a sinkhole in March 2025, was equally concerning.
“We will be tabling further questions demanding clear answers on why the deadline for repairs to the R563 road was missed, and why rehabilitation efforts continue to fail despite the department receiving an additional adjustment budget of R314.9 million,” Du Plessis said.
