Gautrain project leader Elzer "Jack" van der Merwe (55) is walking into the Park Hyatt to have lunch with me when he gets the news that the cabinet has given the green light to the controversial rapid rail project. Its future was in doubt after a public outcry over its new estimated cost - a whopping R20bn.
He arrives at the restaurant, Zafferano, and, in his usual unaffected way, breaks the news to me. Then he proceeds to the table, sits down, unfolds his napkin and orders mineral water. No excitement at all! Not even a sigh of elation or murmur of relief.
We order calamari to start and line fish for main courses and make small talk. There's something odd about this picture, I think. So I ask: "Why aren't you jubilant?"
Van der Merwe pauses for a while and then says: "Ag, it's not like winning the Lotto. The Lotto is pure luck. With the Gautrain it is different - we worked hard on it and it is an achievement."
But it is too early, it seems, to crack open the bubbly - especially when so many things still have to be tied up.
Van der Merwe explains that getting cabinet approval "is only one crisis that is over - there will probably be another 10 to overcome".
Not least of them is securing finance for the R20bn-R23bn project on a tight deadline. More than 100 documents, consisting of more than 10 000 pages, will have to be checked and signed by all parties before the end of this year.
Then there is pressure from national government for a plan to be produced soon to show how the Gautrain will be integrated with other modes of transport. And, to add to the list, there is a niggling issue - a pending court case by residents of Muckleneuk, Pretoria, who are unhappy with the current route. So the chances of delays in the process and things going awry are genuine concerns. Understandably, Van der Merwe is holding out on celebrations "until", he says, "the train is on the track".
The high-speed train will transport passengers from Johannesburg to Pretoria in 35 minutes and from Sandton to Johannesburg International airport in 15. There will be a train running every 10 minutes, says Van der Merwe.
While most people are willing to bet that the Gautrain will not be ready by 2010, Van der Merwe holds on to a shred of optimism. "We may or may not be ready for the World Cup," he says simply.
The plan is to get Gautrain constructed by 2009 and, thereafter, it will have to undergo a period of operational testing. "No need to worry," says Van der Merwe. "There won't be construction sites all over the place when people come for the World Cup."
Most of the construction will be completed before then. But the tunnelling might take more time, he says.
Being in the driver's seat of the Gautrain has not been easy. It comes with hard slog, day and night, and flak from detractors.
Despite the enormous pressure, though, Van der Merwe, who has an engineering degree, consistently maintains a calm demeanour. I find it hard to understand how he manages this, especially after listening to his tragic life story.
When he was five, Van der Merwe lost his mother to cancer. She was a Rhodes University graduate and school teacher. His father then took him and his sister and moved into the Regent Hotel in Pretoria, which was owned by his extended family.
"We grew up there," he recalls. "I used to eat in the dining room with the guests."
After primary school, Van der Merwe had to relocate again. He was sent to Heidelberg Volkskool, a boarding school, where he matriculated.
In a twist of fate, six years ago, history repeated itself. Van der Merwe lost his wife to illness. This was when their second child Neil - a laatlammetjie - was only four.
Van der Merwe cuts a lonely figure. His life seems to revolve around the Gautrain and his son, with whom he spends every free moment .
Like his late father, who spent his entire working life as a civil servant in the water affairs department, Van der Merwe has been in government service since he graduated. He worked in several departments on roads and transport and was roped in by the first democratic government to head a team to set up a new transport department.
Though Van der Merwe's primary responsibility is transport, some unrelated tasks have also landed on his lap. One was the investigation into allegations of corruption over the Aids play Sarafina, which then president Nelson Mandela commissioned him to do. He did find corruption and it led to an official being sacked.
Perhaps Van der Merwe was a safe bet for the investigation because he is not a political animal but a technocrat.
As leader of the Gautrain project, Van der Merwe is Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa's man. If he delivers on the project in good time, it will be a feather in Shilowa's cap. And if it works according to plan, it could create much-needed jobs and a hive of economic activity. Ultimately, Van der Merwe says, one has to think about the broader economic impact of better transportation in shaping the economy.
Unless government sees the provision of transportation as a public service, there will always be problems, he says. In Zurich, for instance, there are trains running almost empty during nonpeak hours, but they continue to operate because they are necessary.
Sceptics say the Gautrain could become a white elephant. "Nonsense," says Van der Merwe. "It will be successful - but perhaps only after I am dead."
