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Government won’t pay additional cost for Gautrain’s Sandton-airport route – and faces lawsuit from Bombela

Kennedy Mudzuli

The Gauteng provincial government will not pay extra for the Gautrain to be ready between Sandton and the OR Tambo International Airport ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Chief executive officer of the Gautrain Management Agency and provincial representative Jack van der Merwe said on Tuesday morning the proposed Heads of Agreement with Bombela concerning costs, states that ‘this variation shall be a zero cost variation to province, now and in the future’.
Van der Merwe said, “Thus it is clear that if this agreement is implemented the Gauteng province will incur no costs, now and into the future, to have the Gautrain airport service running for the World Cup.”
Project spokesman Barbara Jensen concurred but told the Sandton Chronicle negotiations about the airport route had been concluded and an announcement could be made before the end of March.
Van der Merwe also commented on the claim detailed in a bulky document titled ‘Delay and Disruption Submission’ from Bombela Concession Company in which the Gautrain builder and operator is claiming more than R10 billion for delays in the construction process.
Bombela claimed in the document that the Gauteng government handed over building sites late and in a different sequence from what had been agreed upon.
“The province has come to the conclusion that the concessionaire has a spurious claim which the province is convinced has very little chance of success. A decision, taken by the Gautrain Political Committee and supported by the Gautrain Management Agency Board, is to oppose this spurious claim. Should the concessionaire proceed with this claim, it will be referred to arbitration,” he said.
He added it was a common occurrence on mega-infrastructure projects such as the Gautrain that the contractors would lodge claims against the client.

Meanwhile, Gauteng’s DA spokesman for transport Neil Campbell said the claim represented just under 40 percent of the entire cost of the (inflated and hopefully final) Gautrain project and, should the case go against the Department, would push the cost of the showcase train to R36 billion – a far cry from the original estimates of R12 billion or less. “The claim is R 4 billion more than the entire Gauteng Roads and Transport budget for 2010/11,” he said.

“There is little doubt that the government delayed construction by not acquiring properties timeously and, once again, the inefficiency of the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport has been spotlighted.

“The waste of taxpayers’ money is totally unacceptable and responsible officials and politicians should be prosecuted.”

kennedym@caxton.co.za

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