When former president Jacob Zuma infamously appointed Des “Weekend Special” van Rooyen as finance minister for a spectacular 48-hour term in 2015, a radio commentator — possibly Bobby Godsell — memorably noted that “SA has a history of repeatedly walking up to the precipice, peering over it, and then deciding ‘not today’”.

This has been the reality under which South Africans have lived since the formation of the union. Arguably, life was even more volatile before then...

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