Last month, two South African provincial politicians surprised the country by announcing a decision to build a monorail from Soweto to central Johannesburg.

The provincial ministers for finance and transport startled many, not least the Johannesburg City Council, when they said they had already signed an agreement with a Malaysian consortium for the R12bn, 44.7km-monorail that would carry 1.5m people daily and that it was due to be completed by 2009.