R32 Million Vanishes Into A Jozi Pothole, With Road Upgrade ‘Existing Only On Google Maps’

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13-06-2025
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Despite millions spent and promises made, Evaton Road remains a muddy mess and residents say the only upgrade was in fiction.

R32 million. That’s the eye-watering figure Gauteng’s roads and transport department swears it poured into “upgrading” a short slice of Evaton Road in the Vaal.

And what dazzling infrastructure did that king’s ransom buy? A dusty gravel track, a wobbly footpath across a stream and an illegal dumping hotspot that would give a landfill site an inferiority complex.

The sorry stretch between Adams and Selbourne roads in Small Farms links iMfundo Primary and Tokelo Secondary, split by the Rietspruit stream. Back in 2016, then-premier David Makhura trumpeted the coming makeover during his State of the Province, per IOL. Fast-forward, and the only thing that’s really changed is the size of the hole in the public purse.

Enter DA MPL Kingsol Chabalala, who fired off a question to the roads and transport MEC Kedibone Diale-Tlabela about the phantom upgrade. Her reply was that the project kicked off in October 2017 and – stay with us – wrapped up at the end of August 2017. Time-travel construction? Nice trick if you can pull it off.

Diale-Tlabela insists her department is chuffed with the service providers’ handiwork. They certainly seemed chuffed: the main contractor walked away with nearly R17.3 million, the consultant pocketed over R6.1 million, and a dozen local SMMEs split a further R8.6 million for plant hire, roadworks, security and the like.

Yet a recent site visit shows exactly zero evidence of a facelift. One fed-up resident summed it up:

“The road only exists on Google Maps,” they sighed.

Another local piled on: “The funeral procession of an elderly neighbour could not reach the man’s house due to the state of the road and it gets flooded whenever it rains”.

Chabalala, unsurprisingly, is fuming. “This [is] despite the promises made by former Gauteng Premier David Makhura in 2016 that they will be upgrading the road. This road remains in a terrible condition. It is unrehabilitated and poses a safety risk for motorists and pedestrians,” he blasted.

The DA wants boots on the ground: “The DA Gauteng will request the chairperson of the roads and transport portfolio committee in the Gauteng provincial legislature to arrange an oversight inspection to assess the state of the roads,” Chabalala vowed.

If the committee finds the road is still a glorified dirt track, he’s hauling Diale-Tlabela before the ethics committee for allegedly misleading the House. “She must explain what happened to the money she claims was spent upgrading the roads,” he warned.

Until then, the only smooth surface in Small Farms is the department’s spin.

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