You don’t need expensive analysts or economists to explain South Africa to you – often that is a liability. Just listen to what the people are saying. Uber drivers, petrol attendants, and aged grandmothers – they’re the best analysts and know exactly what is happening, why it is happening, and what must be done to fix it.

Has your life improved under the GNU? Only 2 in 10 South Africans say it has, even as 6 in 10 say the governing arrangement is working. A contradiction? No. The public appreciates that the GNU has saved South Africa from the ANC/MK/EFF alternative but also that it is not moving on the economy. That is high-level insight.

Would it not be better then to swap it out for ANC/MK/EFF? By a margin of 2 to 1 South Africans say that would make things worse.

The people also know what the elites don’t yet understand, that CR is part of the problem and needs to go. Eight in 10 would be happy to see the back of him. That is very different to elite opinion that wants to save him from facing judgment for Phala Phala. And if you have any doubt that South African voters are open-minded, just think that 70% of black voters would be happy to see the DA throw him out via a vote of no confidence if Parliament judges him liable on Phala Phala.

Is that not too harsh a judgment – that he is part of the problem? What about all the reforms he is driving? There is a lot of PR hype around that but in the real economy there is just about nothing to show for it. Even less than nothing. The investment rate is even lower than when he came to office. And Jacob Zuma was creating twice as many jobs. And for the ANC, polling now at 34% - it’s a tragedy for their best people and for the millions who believed in the party. You have to be pretty out of touch with the on-the-ground reality of South Africa to think the people are rooting to save CR.

Should American firms be given a break on BEE? South Africa’s elites would answer either no... because BEE is so important for social justice etc… or that they don’t know because these things are so complicated… the government really has no room to move on this…it would cause a revolution etc. That is just as out of touch and the people agree by a margin of 2 to 1 that of course the Americans should be exempted. Ordinary people are not nearly as attached to many of these policies as South Africa’s elites think. Why would they be? BEE is a partnership in which only the richest whites and the richest blacks get to participate in any meaningful way. There are not many really rich whites that aren’t neck deep in BEE deals! Get on the campaign trail in any town or city and declare from your soapbox that if you vote for me I promise to bring more BEE to your community. Stones will be thrown.

Is it right that Afrikaners are granted special refugee status to the US? Just 21% of South Africans think so. And for the race-obsessed grifters out there that splits 23% for whites and 21% for blacks. South Africa is a very united society with vast middle ground between black and white opinion. That is always the case when testing opinion on something really controversial and officially divisive. South Africans divided on refugee policy - would be a typical headline. Nonsense. The opposite is true. Not that the public begrudges the Afrikaners who take up the option for doing so. The bulk of national opinion is that whether they do so or not is “of no consequence” [to my life]. Open the policy to blacks, as by rights this newspaper thinks the US should do, and there will be throngs of black South Africans queuing for the chance to make a life in Trump’s America. Polymarkets would be a sure thing on the bet that over a million would apply. Black people also suffer under BEE, black commercial farmers are attacked and butchered. Making these issues about black vs white is so stupid.

Migrants are a problem but the deeper issue is that the “ANC government for decades has failed to grow the economy and create jobs” – 66% of black respondents and 70% of whites “strongly agree” with that. They’re in the same place on all these key issues. Just imagine how strong the country would be if that was better appreciated and the GNU partners accepted this and worked with it. A first step towards that might be for the richest South Africans to get in line with what is really happening in the country and what it is people want.