Poor Malusi Gigaba. His elevation to the finance ministry was always going to be difficult. But he really needs to seize the moment and make the best of it; he might even surprise himself by pulling it off. The odds are in his favour. To do this, however, he needs to start, urgently, taking advantage of the opportunities and avoiding the sideshows. It is true that he replaced Pravin Gordhan, whose popularity was approaching that of a rock star prior to his sacking. And, worse, he was appointed by an increasingly unpopular president, Jacob Zuma, whose days in office are rapidly approaching an end. Over the past month, I have watched Gigaba swing from optimism to pessimism and from being confident to being diffident. His post-appointment media conference inspired confidence, mainly because he oozed it himself. This was short-lived though — the first ratings downgrade was announced and the news cycle turned against him. This negative trend gained traction when big business, still bruis...
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