The double-edged symbolism of Mbeki on the shoulders of white rugby victors

South Africa is buzzing — and not just in the afterglow of victory in the Rugby World Cup. Johann­esburg, built in the 1880s on the back of mineral excavation, is experiencing a contemporary form of gold rush. At the gleaming international airport, yuppies of every hue shape deals on their laptops. A ride into town takes you past shopping malls almost as large as the gold dumps on the outskirts, into a city of building sites. Another sports fixture, the 2010 soccer World Cup which South Africa will host, is often touted as the trigger for this construction boom, but much of it would clearly have happened anyway.

Parts of the smart northern suburbs are gridlocked by road-closures related to the building of Gautrain — a 25 billion rand (£1.8 billion) rapid rail network connecting Pretoria and Johannesburg with the airport and the upmarket shopping district of Sandton. Target passengers for this system are not the many thousands who daily criss-cross the city in packed ‘combi’ taxis: price-wise, Gautrain is aimed at the affluent and ‘commercially active’, and tourists.