The next 24 months will be some of the most volatile South Africa has been through. The local government elections will be chaotic, with scores of municipalities ending up without clear majorities. Even after the votes have been counted and the subsequent coalitions formed, legal challenges arising from the overhang effect may see control of councils flipped months, or even more than a year, after the election. Where the African National Congress (ANC) loses badly, its civil service will turn to sabotage. The Democratic Alliance (DA) is not finding the staff it needs to run all the places in which it could form coalitions. The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) is surging. Both DA and ANC leaders are prepared to walk away from the Government of National Unity. And amid all of that, Cyril Ramaphosa is going to exit the ANC. Get your country and family strategy wrong in those circumstances and you could suffer considerable damage and vast losses.

The Common Sense cares about people and it has a mountain of respect for its readers. It knows what a scary situation this can be for any family needing to plan its future amid such crazy politics and the breakdown of societal institutions around that. It has therefore taken its best people, and South Africa’s best thinkers, and come up with a plan for what ordinary families need to do, not just to withstand the craziness but to get ahead of the curve on where South Africa is going, so that they can thrive in the enclave future that is coming.

That advice has been broken into four quadrants.

The first is what to do with your wealth and assets in terms of diversification, both within South Africa and without.

The second is how to secure a sound income stream through knowing which kinds of businesses are going to work and which will not, and which careers to choose and which to avoid.

The third is where in South Africa to buy or rent property, and how, at the same time, to create international residence and career options.

The fourth is how to prepare your children for what lies ahead in terms of their education and careers.

The basic chart on which we set out those quadrants follows below.

The Common Sense writers and analysts are on this same journey with you. They all have families and children, and interests and assets in South Africa. It’s a new world for them, too, but their thinking on it is advanced. They have the best data out there to know what is going on, they have an excellent global and historical understanding, and they care a lot that ordinary folk do not get wiped out.