On matters political and economic, before the country shut down for three weeks — much like Europe does in August — SA’s finance minister Tito Mboweni hosted an “economic colloquium”. We may have ended the year on a high note, but it was not new, nor was it fresh, innovative, or exciting, and it almost certainly will not achieve anything before the election, which is scheduled for May next year. Mboweni told those who showed an interest that whatever was decided would only be made public in mid-2019. Conveniently, after the elections. The high note that was struck was more like a note plucked on the pin of a music box, where the cylinder goes around and around, and the comb produces an anodyne melody over and over again. On top of the music box, a little plastic ballerina goes around and around. The problem is not so much with the melody, which, frankly, ceases to amuse or excite after the second or third rotation, as it is with the structure of the music box. The first level of hum...

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