“Only in South Africa:” Mzansi Comedian Rory Petzer’s “KrokoZille” Post Has SA in Stitches

• A Johannesburg pothole that sat unfixed for over three years was finally repaired after a DA politician went for a swim in it on camera
• South Africans flooded the comments with jokes after a comedian’s side-by-side photo comparison went massively viral on social media
• The “KrokoZille” post pulled more than five thousand likes and hundreds of comments in just a matter of hours after it was posted

Surely nobody told Helen Zille that swimming in a pothole could make her a meme. She put on a wetsuit, grabbed a snorkel, and jumped right in anyway. Then comedian Rory Petzer got hold of the footage, and the rest was history.

On 31 March 2026, Petzer posted a side-by-side photo comparison on Facebook. One image showed a crocodile gliding calmly through a river, labelled “Krokodille.” The other showed Zille swimming through a Johannesburg pothole labelled “KrokoZille.” South Africans understood the joke without any further explanation needed.

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A city drowning long before Zille arrived

Before the laughter, there was a street that had been flooded for years. Zille showed up on Balder Road in Douglasdale. Residents there had been reporting the same burst pipe problem to the City of Johannesburg for over three years. Every repair attempt eventually failed, and the water always came back again. Each time, the hole grew bigger, and the frustration grew louder.

Zille filmed herself wading in and attempting a casual backstroke in the murky water. She even dipped her head under, looking for fish, which only made it funnier. She called the flooded crater one of Johannesburg’s many public swimming facilities.

When politics meets punchlines

The swim immediately raised the continuous issue of service delivery. By the end of the day, City of Johannesburg crews had arrived and fixed the pipe. Residents were relieved but frustrated that it took a video to move three years of inaction forward.

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See the Facebook post below:

South Africans love the joke

Briefly News compiled some comments from the post below.

Michelle Maistry commented:

“Please go to the naughty corner with immediate effect, Rory. Even though I was telepathically summoning you to make a Zille joke. 🤣🤟👌“

Angelique Horn said:

“South Africans are already flooding the internet with their sense of humour, it's Zillious. 👏😂“

Jasmine Wilkinson noted:

“Yoh! Elections imminent. Desperate times call for desperate measures! 😂“

Lebogang Shovhote said:

“Only in South Africa. 😂“

Maxwell Matodzi commented:

“Panyaza Lesufi should also come and bathe here, comrades. No more hotel bathroom. 🤝“

KayG Setuke wrote:

“The stunt actually worked! 😂 What size Speedo does cupcake wear? I'll go past the shops on the way to work and pick one up for our father, Cyril. I just wanna see something.”

More articles involving Helen Zille

• Briefly News previously reported that The City of Johannesburg reportedly dispatched repair machinery to Balder Road in Douglasdale after a long-standing water leak and pothole caused major community frustration.
• The Democratic Alliance's Johannesburg mayoral candidate, Helen Zille, surprised South Africans when she vocalised her stance on illegal immigration.
• Johannesburg's mayoral candidate, Helen Zille, swam in a pothole to highlight the city's infrastructure issues.

Source: Briefly News