Political leadership is not just about making policies, enacting laws or giving out instructions to minions. It’s also about signals. It is about the right signals at the right time to the right constituency.

Nothing reflects this more than the arrest of the smug bunch of people suspected of illegally stealing R2,3bn from VBS, the mutual bank that collapsed in 2018, depriving thousands of poor people of their savings and pensions. The joy that greeted news of the arrests should not be underestimated...