Are you an aspiring public servant, spokesperson, PR agent or journalist? Do you want to learn how not to shoot yourself and your employers in the kneecaps? Then gather round, and listen to the cautionary tale of Dr Bandile Masuku, or How To Turn A Small Bureaucratic Factoid Into A Fiery Cartwheeling Shitshow.

You might not have registered his name, but on Wednesday you almost certainly caught a whiff of those petrol fumes and heard the whoosh of the fireball. Because it was on Wednesday that Dr Masuku, Gauteng’s health MEC, told media that 1.5 million grave sites were being prepared in the province in response to surging Covid-19 figures. ..