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There are no certainties. No matter how hard you try, unless you accept what is in front of you for what it is, you’re in trouble. I’ve been trying to reconcile the multitude of voices jostling to solve our country’s deepest problem, poverty.

I know you’re supposed to add inequality and unemployment to that, but this column takes prioritising seriously. Solving them all at once is impossible anyway. The ANC has been trying for 28 years and has, in fact, made all three worse, not better.

People are poor because they don’t have work. They don’t have work because there are not enough employers to hire them. Being an employer in SA is a sea of pain. There are no incentives to start a profitable business here. There’s no shared dream of a future between business, labour and the state.

PETER BRUCE: While Ramaphosa ticks the boxes, his ministers untick the country (businesslive.co.za)