Maybe the phrase “pipe dreams” should be changed to “train dreams” – certainly in the case of the vaunted Gautrain and accompanying BRT system. Less than 3,000 jobs and a few newish buildings do hardly a rich harvest make.

South Africa faces two closely related crises: Unemployment and infrastructure collapse. By seriously, and intelligently, addressing the maintenance of infrastructure, government would take a huge step towards solving the problem it professes is its prime focus: Creating new jobs.