Actress Linda Mtoba has had enough of the terrible road conditions in Johannesburg, and she’s not keeping quiet about it. Taking to her Instagram stories, she shared a series of emotional and frustrated posts, calling out the city’s crumbling roads and the dangers they pose to everyone who drives on them.
“It’s like this EVERYWHERE!!!! You’d think I’m lying,” she wrote, sharing shocking pictures of pothole-ridden streets. “This is a completely different area. Presidential convoy drives through the filth that the roads in JHB are. Pretty much every single road in JHB is like this! Sewage flows, barely any signage, uneven surfaces. Rubbish.”
Mtoba didn’t hold back as she revealed the personal toll it has taken on her. “I’ve had to replace 2 tyres on 2 different instances. At 15k a time. In 1 year. And I had just gotten new tyres,” she said. “When I say HATE it I mean it! It’s the worst place to drive.”
She continued to describe the city as a shadow of what it once was. “This place is completely disintegrating. From 5 years to now. Even from a year ago. Angazi yazi indowo ebolayo at such a rapid rate like here. Where do you drive?!!! I’m sure this road is still like this. It’s been months, the whole lane is pretty much potholes.”
Linda recalled a terrifying experience when she hit a deep pothole. “I hit a bad pothole which led to my needing to change a tyre. I couldn’t avoid it ‘cause I was surely going to hit another car, which would’ve caused a huge accident. I’m so sure these potholes cause major accidents which ultimately cost lives unnecessarily.”
Her frustration echoed louder as she wrote, “JHB is falling apart. It’s in fact apart. It’s happened. What a complete disintegration of a beautiful place. THE ROADS ARE THE WORST!! THE RICHEST SQUARE MILE IN AFRICA IS LITTERED IN POTHOLES AND SEWAGE.”
Linda also opened up her platform to her followers, allowing them to share their own stories — and they did not hold back.
One wrote, “Rosebank sana!! There’s a pothole every few metres when you’re driving!” Another added, “The robots being constantly out and the traffic that comes with it! They never fix them.” A third shared a costly experience: “The pothole broke my arm control — now I have to pay more than 60k.”
Responding to one message about how scary this reality has become, Linda said, “It’s become normal. I think we all feel so defeated we ask ourselves what’s the point when we want to get upset or raise the issues. What good does it do? So we just dodge that pothole, drive in the dark, hope to get home and hope to find that there’s water and electricity. Just defeated. Add hoping to make it home nje…”
According to The Citizen, Johannesburg had 12,281 potholes reported in February 2023 alone. During just one quarter of 2022, the Johannesburg Roads Agency received 233 claims from drivers who suffered damage or accidents from potholes — and paid out R24.9 million in claims.
