When my ANC colleagues in Parliament told me Cosatu wanted my head on a plate, I had genuine problems understanding the reason they’re so upset. Turns out I’m just one of those bloody slave-trading labour brokers.

There are many good reasons why the DA and Cosatu should find themselves at the same table and work together for the benefit of South Africa. And yet, there are almost as many reasons why such coalition will not work.

Marie Antoinette’s notorious remark when told the French masses were revolting because they had no bread to eat, was to say, “Then let them eat cake”. Not only was it the zenith of arrogance, but demonstrated the most reprehensible detachment from the realities of her people’s suffering. The idiom of having your cake and eating it (meaning to enjoy consuming something and yet to preserve it, like a never-emptying bottle of single-malt Scotch) is only a slightly different ...