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Although the Gautrain is not, of course, being built solely to accommodate 2010 World Cup visitors, its development has always been premised on the fact that it would be ready prior to the World Cup, and would provide transport support for the tournament. This is why the Gauteng government originally pledged R150-million to the Bombela consortium to accelerate completion of the first phase of the project by June 8th, 2010 -- the day before the 2010 World Cup was due to kick off. It is also why the Gautrain official website claims that "a historical highlight for many will be the much-anticipated climax in 2010 when Gauteng residents can take their first ride on the train between Sandton and OR Tambo International Airport".

Except that now it appears that the Gautrain project will not be ready in time for 2010. The Gautrain CEO Jack van der Merwe told Parliament yesterday: "it was never said that this was a soccer project. This train has to run for another 100 years."

While the DA accepts that the project serves a much larger purpose than merely serving World Cup visitors, it is extremely problematic that significant resources have been set aside in order to meet a particular deadline, only for the contractors to now fail to meet that deadline.

We will now pose parliamentary questions to ascertain exactly how much has been spent to ensure that the 2010 deadline was met, and what problems arose that inhibited the project from being completed by this deadline.