INSIGHT | Pothole politics diverts attention from much bigger issues facing country

The image of a senior opposition figure paddling theatrically in a pothole in Johannesburg is as absurd as it is revealing. In the age of TikTok politics, spectacle has become strategy. What might once have been a local service delivery complaint is now repackaged as viral content, engineered to provoke outrage, humour and, ultimately, votes.

But beneath the laughter lies a far more serious question: what kind of politics is this, and who does it serve? At almost the same time this pothole performance was making the rounds online, the country was confronting a scandal that cut far deeper than any damaged road. The department of basic education has come under scrutiny for awarding a massive textbook tender to a company that was reportedly registered after the procurement process had already begun.

This is not performance. This is not symbolism. This is a governance failure that touches the lives of children sitting in real classrooms, waiting for real books.

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The contrast is impossible to ignore. On one side, a politician steps into a flooded pothole and invites the camera closer. On the other hand, pupils sit at desks without the basic tools they need to learn, their futures quietly placed at risk by failures they did not create. It fits within the long-standing narrative of theDApresenting itself as the competent alternative to the governingANC.

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