President Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address attracted a vast amount of commentary, almost all of it negative and cynical. For a country at boiling point, the event was watched not only for a sense of what his government intends to do, but for a sense of empathy with the frustrations of the public. As a country, we place a large premium on the latter. It is one thing to be seen as incompetent, another to be seen as out of touch. We seem generally to prefer incompetence.
