Johannesburg - As he walks into the boardroom of the Gautrain executive suites in Midrand, chief executive Jack van der Merwe shows the character of a shrewd businessman – one who has mastered the art of sleeping less and working himself to the bone.
For a man with a reputation for being disciplined and inflexible and having a strong work ethic, Van der Merwe has a surprisingly warm smile.
“Why didn’t you eat your porridge when you were young?” he jokes, taking a swipe at my small stature in contrast to his bulky physique.
His joke breaks down the sternness of the corporate environment.
Across the street, the product of Van der Merwe’s 15 years of hard work snakes its way along a railway track in all its splendour.
“It’s simply magic,” he says of the gold coaches he often rides in – like the 95 000 commuters who use the Gautrain every day.
“I have to go to the offices of the premier, the MEC, and a lot of places. I have to be quite mobile. What I do now is I leave my car and jump onto the train.
“Public transport must become your life. You must not think about it. If you have to go on a trip, you know that the train will always be there. To me, that is the magic of it – people embracing it.”
A well-travelled man, Van der Merwe has come to appreciate how visiting other countries opens one to a myriad opportunities.
But this kind of life didn’t seem to be on the cards for him when he was a child. His family was not wealthy and his mother died when he was only 5.
However, a R2 000 subsidy of his tuition fees allowed him to pursue a career in engineering and he made a success of it.
“(Growing up) we didn’t have much money, so I got a bursary from the government. My father worked for Water Affairs. I got R400 to do my first year. That was for the hostel and engineering. The next year I got R400. My third year I got R600. I’ve worked for (the government) now for 44 years. That’s quite a return on an investment,” he chuckles.
It was a most worthwhile investment, with the current government reluctant to let him go, because of his vast technical knowledge.
It was on June 26 1971, that Van der Merwe took the first step towards his career after initially following in his father’s footsteps as a technician in Water Affairs. On the same day (June 26) in 1860, the first track for steam-powered locomotives opened in South Africa – proof that his relationship with engineering was set in the stars.
However, had engineering not worked out, Van der Merwe has no doubt he would have been a teacher.
“I love working with children. I love how their brains work.
“To see the results at the end is always rewarding,” he said. “Children are always honest. If they hate you, they hate you,” he quips as he sits on the governing body of the Afrikaanse Hoër Meisieskool in Pretoria.
It is his daughter’s former school, which he describes as “the best in the world”.
In February 2000, Van der Merwe and his team embarked on the Gautrain project with then-premier Mbazima Shilowa at the helm.
Planning the routes was critical and challenges ranged from cutting through several suburbs to installing complex infrastructure.
Opposition to the project was strong as they bargained with home owners for rail space.
Ten years later, and after some minor glitches, the trains were ready to get moving.
Van der Merwe recalls the day he stood on the platform at the Marlboro Gautrain station, ready to take the first batch of 50 travellers to OR Tambo International Airport.
Nerves gripped him, but he says the day was magical. Reality had hit.
Yet Marlboro is a route which raises discomfort, as it passes through Alexandra township.
How can something so lavish pass through so much abject poverty? Was it a case of throwing opulence in the face of the poor? Van der Merwe thinks not.
“First, Gautrain is not opulent. It’s effective. That’s really the difference. If you go to Hong Kong and see the link of the train from the sea to the airport, you will realise that is opulent.
“In our case, with Marlboro, we looked at the sensitivity around it, whether people could afford it, whether it reduced travel time and many other things.”
Some are not happy with the strict rules for Gautrain commuters – such as the ban on eating – and the hefty fines for transgressors. However, Van der Merwe’s position is the laws don’t discriminate. He was caught red-handed once.
“A barcode was being launched for the Gautrain. There was a little chocolate attached to the code. They gave it to me. It was the people from Bombela.
“I put it in my mouth and the guard instantly said, ‘Spit it out! It is the rule that we have and it’s a rule from our operator’.
“It can’t be that we make a quality call on whether a person is eating gum because they have just had an operation and need to exercise their jaw. The law must be applied to everyone.”
Van der Merwe is not shy about his role in society, adding he sees himself as a custodian of taxpayers’ money.
“I’ve seen it, handling my finances. There’s no ducking and diving. That’s part of engineering. If you understand it, it stays constant. For me there are two rules: honesty and transparency.
“I believe in running things properly. I may come across as if I’m strict or inflexible but I believe in getting it right.”
His list of the 10 most influential people includes attorneys Lungile Mazwai and Metja Ledwaba, who he regards as having the best work ethic “of all time”.
Van der Merwe said more good things were to come, with the planned expansion of the railway system for a further 200km, going through Soweto, Randburg and Mamelodi, and he’s never been prouder to be an African.
Although his work often takes him away from his family, the Pretoria East resident can rest assured that he has left a legacy – one of having made the country a better place.
In Van der Merwe’s words: “That would be magic.”
More about Van der Merwe
* He relaxes to classical music.
* His late father started working for the government at the age of 14.
* He spent his childhood at a hostel in Heidelberg, Gauteng.
* His sister is a physiotherapist and a dean at Unisa.
* He dreams of taxis becoming shuttles for Gautrain commuters.
* He rates the InterCity Express high-speed train in Germany as the best in the world.
* He says lack of long-term planning kills the infrastructure of any country.
* He has learnt that the youth of today prefers cellphone connectivity to buying. With this in mind, he is working on plans to install wi-fi on the Gautrain.
* Because of its complex landscape, and the money needed for a project of this magnitude, he doesn’t think a long-distance, high-speed train is feasible in South Africa.
Saturday Star