Development

Gautrain driving development

7 April 2008

Progress on South Africa's Gautrain Rapid Rail Link has been steadily gathering pace since construction began in September 2006, with the billions already spent on the project leading to increased employment and skills development in Gauteng province.

The 80-kilometre rail link, one of the largest projects of its kind currently underway in the world, will run between central Johannesburg and OR Tambo International Airport, with a separate line linking the system to Pretoria.

Travelling at speeds of between 160 and 180 kilometres per hour, the Gautrain will take commuters from Johannesburg to Pretoria in about 40 minutes, while a dedicated air passenger service will take commuters between Sandton and the airport in about 15 minutes.

"One of our major successes thus far in enabling faster economic growth and job creation is the implementation of the Gautrain project," Gauteng Finance Minister Paul Mashatile said recently when tabling the 2008/09 provincial budget.

"Through this project, we have been able to grow the labour absorption capacity of the provincial economy," Mashatile said. "This has in turn translated economic growth into the creation of new employment opportunities and has contributed to skills transfer and reduced inequality and poverty."

According to a statement released by Gautrain last month, the actual spend on the project over the 2006/07 financial year was R5.6-billion, of which R4.6-billion was from the Gauteng provincial government and just under R1-billion from the private sector.

Over the current financial year, spending on the project is forecast at R7.7-billion, with R5.6-billion from the provincial government, R3-billion of which comes from a national government grant, and the balance of R2.1-billion coming from the private sector.

Black economic empowerment

The project is also being touted as a key driver of black economic empowerment (BEE), with 25% of the concession company, the turnkey contractor and the operating company being in black hands. In addition, empowerment partners also account for a 10% shareholding in the civil contractor and the electrical and mechanical contractor.

To date, over R1-billion has been spent on procurement from and sub-contracting to more than 190 broad-based BEE companies, about R430-million on some 60 new broad-based BEE companies and about R380-million spent through more than 130 small, medium and micro enterprises.

Gautrain said that South African materials, plant and equipment to the value of about R440-million had also been purchased.

"Over the past 14 months, Bombela [the concession company] has already created more than 3 100 local direct jobs and an estimated total of more than 21 600 direct, indirect and induced jobs," Gautrain said.

It is expected that the project will create and or retain about 93 000 direct, indirect and induced jobs during the design, construction and commissioning of the project and more than 2 700 jobs per annum during the operation and maintenance of the project.

"Furthermore, it is estimated that an additional 40 000 jobs will be created due to developments in the vicinity of the stations," Gautrain said.

Skills development

Gautrain said that on-the-job skills transfer and coaching formed an integral part of their training programmes. Trainees also undergo training at several further education and training institutions in order to develop scarce skills in construction and civil engineering.

Unskilled staff and semi-skilled staff have attended about 4 900 training courses to improve their skills levels, while members of senior, middle and junior management of Bombela have attended more than 660 training courses.

More than 170 women are also attending a training programme specially designed for women.

Up until the end of February this year, Bombela had 114 candidates training in mining competency, 19 trained plant operators with a further 30 being trained over the next six months, 50 candidates being trained as crane operators, and 54 candidates being trained in steel fixing, with a further 35 candidates identified for electrical and mechanical learnerships.

Specialised skills

To supplement the pool of skills needed for the project, widely regarded as the second-largest public-private partnership in the world, Gautrain has sourced 100 highly specialised skills from the Philippines, India and from within the Southern African Development Community.

"All these individuals have extensive experience in underground rail and they will transfer their skills to local people working on the project," Gautrain said.

In a further drive to attract scarce skills, Gautrain has started the Woza Ekhaya initiative with other business members of the Homecoming Revolution, a non-profit organisation that aims to change the perceptions of South Africa abroad and recruit skills that were lost back to the country.

"So far, Gautrain has been successful to convince 37 local construction professionals who left South Africa to work in the United Kingdom to return to South Africa," Gautrain said.

SAinfo reporter