OK, right now we’re screwed. The government is stuck. It has no idea. On Wednesday finance minister Tito Mboweni revealed in his medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) that he has absolutely no idea of the size or structure of the debt relief programme Eskom needs.

For more than a year the answer to how to deal with Eskom’s debt has been the single thing the economy and the markets and the people we borrow money from have wanted to hear. We have been promised the answer dozens of times. Wednesday was delivery day...