National government has put the brakes on the Gauteng monorail project between Johannesburg and Soweto.
The building of a 44,7km monorail between Johannesburg and Soweto has been "put on hold", the Transport Ministry said on Friday.

It said while the monorail proposal cannot be supported in its present form, the government is in principle not opposed to the concept of a monorail.

The Gauteng project will be suspended pending "the necessary process, including consultation", said Transport Ministry spokesperson Collen Msibi.

The decision followed a meeting earlier in the day between Transport Minister Jeff Radebe, Gauteng finance and economic affairs minister Paul Mashatile, and the province's public transport, roads and works minister Ignatius Jacobs.

On May 16, the two provincial ministers signed an agreement with a Malaysian consortium on construction of the monorail, claiming it would transport 1,5-million people a day and reduce their wait for transport to just 15 minutes.

However, the new transport proposal drew criticism from, among others, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the South African Transport and Allied Workers' Union and taxi operators.
full story from M&G here
No doubt the process followed will be the official cause for central government intervention in the proposal. But I wonder how much the source of the criticism influenced the decision.