Community Member Fixes Deep Holes in Soshanguve.

By Tshegofatso Ramaphoko

Caption: Sello Matsane(31) fixing potholes. Image source: Sello Matsane

The issue of potholes in South Africa is no longer a foreign concept, whether you live in the suburbs or townships. And so far, nothing has been done by the government to fix the potholes in most communities. This resulted in a few active community members in Soshanguve, like Sello Matsane (31), who was seen on the streets of Soshanguve Block GG, on the 2nd of June 2023, fixing the issue of potholes in the community.

Sello Matsane is not only a Family South Africa (FAMSA) social worker, but an individual that loves helping in and around the community. He started this movement of potholes with his team in February 2022. However, despite them facing few challenges, Sello and his team are still motivated and determined to help the community.

“I believe in leading by example and the spirit of Ubuntu which states that as a human being who is trying to make a change you must be able to have a giving spirit. Even though I will not benefit from this I will continue for the love of the community” says Sello Matsane.

Matsane mentioned that what got him motivated to start this movement of patching potholes was because he likes being helpful and considers himself a concerned citizen. He plans to eradicate the youth’s unemployment rate with his movement by getting recognition from the municipality.

Caption: One of the patched pothole by Sello Matsane and his team Source: Tshegofatso Ramaphoko

He also mentioned that this movement has made him meet up with challenges. One of the challenges he encountered was that himself, along with his team have been trying to contact the Tshwane Municipality to provide them with equipment, and they were unsuccessful in that attempt.

“We go in different communities to get recognition and be able to eradicate the issue of poverty. But we have not been assisted as my colleague said we tried many times to contact the municipality with no luck” says Matsane.

One of his team members mentioned that the municipality always tells them that its waiting for its budget allocation, and it will see if they will be included within that budget.

Another challenge faced by Matsane, and his team is that he pockets out money and he also uses the little donations from drivers as well as commuters in order to buy the resources they use to fix the potholes. Matsane uses water, wheelbarrows, brooms, shovels as well as cements, to patch up the potholes.

“Even though the cement is not strong enough as the concrete used for the roads, but it’s better than putting bricks and sand it these potholes. If we can at least get equipment from the municipality” says Matsane.

He continued to say that at times they have to pause the movement because it is expensive to continue with this movement, and at times the unavailability of the resources they use, also forces them to pause their movement.

Caption: Sello Matsane and team patching potholes. Image source: Sello Matsane

The Soshanguve community has expressed their gratitude towards Matsane and his team on what they are doing around the community. During the interview, one of the users of the road that Matsane was fixing had to say this about the project.

“I feel proud about these guys and the project they started. I hope they get recognized by the government. Because we as the society are failed by the government. I mean why are the people in the municipality not doing their job to check if our roads are safe, especially those that are responsible for roads. We will end up in unnecessary accidents that are uncalled for because of these potholes.”, said Phineas Gobyane.