The long-awaited Gautrain, which is to connect Johannesburg and Pretoria, will have one of its sections complete by next year’s World Cup. I am a supporter of light rail. And I am all for improving South Africa’s transportation networks, which range from the quite good to the quite abysmal. And a fast, efficient train between Joberg and Pretoria will benefit hundreds of thousands of South Africans. But let’s not kid ourselves as to who is going to benefit from the section of the Gautrain in question, which will connect OR Tambo International Airport with Sandton. It’s not going to be the mass of South Africans. And the beneficiaries won’t even come from a small slice of working and middle class South Africans. The main benefits will be the tiny slice of residents of one of South Africa’s most affluent suburbs, still disproportionately white (though this is changing). Certainly this is how politics works — you benefit Sandton now so that down the road you can benefit Alexandra. But let’s just be real as to what this new development means and what it doesn’t.
