We’re that frog in the blender. Under the most severe lockdown, there’s a riot going on outside. Suddenly we’re introduced to the guy running the fight against the coronavirus in a two-hour TV marathon exposition. Then the central bank cuts its base rate by a percentage point (yo, TV anchors, that’s one percentage point for crying out loud, not “one percent”), the finance minister says that he is going to rewrite his budget and that he is talking to the World Bank and the IMF for money to help fight Covid-19. And then Pravin Gordhan at public enterprises writes to SAA to tell the airline he can give it no more money or guarantees, so goodbye.

That’s the longest introductory paragraph I’ve ever written, a disgrace to my trade. But there really is a lot happening. SAA is now on its own. Its business rescue practitioners will have to give it away or auction it off, whole or in parts, assuming that in the current environment anyone wants to take over an airline with the wrong planes and an overindulged staff...