From a literary point of view, minister Tito Mboweni’s budget offered an exquisite read, citing wisdom from Pliny the Elder to Paul the Apostle. We are a tough and resilient people, the finance minister reminded us, this time evoking the hardy indigenous plant Aloe ferox. As a Botany III student I am obliged to remind the minister that this medicinal plant is also called bitter aloe and that it has laxative properties used to ease the flow of shit through the digestive system. But I digress.

Here are my six hard-to-digest lessons from last week’s education budget...