Three weeks ago, as SA felt the first shocks of an eruption that has since been described as everything from a failed coup and a proto-revolution by the poor to a meaningful catalyst for positive change, a tweet by a certain polymath seemed particularly cynical.

“Prediction,” wrote security and economics guru Antony Altbeker. “Not a single person in SA will rethink a single long-held view about anything important about government, politics or policy despite the huge social upheaval we are seeing.”..