Tyre and rim damage on Daniëll Adendorff's Volkswagen Golf 6 GTI
Road users in Robertson in the Western Cape have been left frustrated and with car damages running into the thousands due to roads ridden with potholes.
According to members of the public, the condition of the town’s roads has deteriorated in recent years, and the municipality is seemingly doing the bare minimum to fix it. In the meantime, the sorry state of the roads has left numerous car owners with tyre and rim damages, and the car mod guys are paying even more.
Says Daniëll Adendorff from the Tuck-it Thursdays car group: “It doesn’t matter what you do, when you launch a complaint with the Langeberg Municipality, they never direct you to the right person or the relevant person is never available.”
Daniëll says that he is not too concerned with the municipality not responding or answering his queries, but rather that the potholes should be filled properly. He further suspects that a recent upheaval on social media urged the municipality to take action.
“The municipality started filling up these holes last week and doing something about it. But the issue is not them filling it up, but the method they use, because there are now these bumps in the road and the roads are not smooth – after they’ve filled the potholes,” Daniëll says.
Attempts to call the Langeberg Municipality for comments yielded no success.
It’s getting expensive
Like Daniëll, many car owners have taken up the passion to modify their vehicles. Ranging from different rims to different tyres, and, at times, modifications to the suspension, these all suffer and break because of the potholes.
Daniëll says that he bought his car, a Volkswagen Golf 6 GTI, two years ago, but he had already gone through five tyres because of fights with the potholes. The GTI is also kitted with an AirLux Suspension kit, with the struts costing R1 400 each. He replaced the front struts in November 2022, but these are already due for replacement because of the potholes.
In the latest incident with a pothole, one of his 235/35 R19 tyres was shredded when he was forced to drive through a pothole. A tyre shop in Robertson quoted him R2 050 per tyre, but the more peace-of-mind brands’ prices start at R3 000.
And depending on the type of damage on your rim, repairs can cost anywhere from R1 500 upwards.
“I love my municipality and I love my town,” Daniëll says. “But what is happening is just bad and there is no reason why Robertson’s roads have to be such a poor condition.”
