On Wednesday, finance minister Tito Mboweni gave meat to the bones of the president's recently announced third wave relief measures. Unfortunately, this provides only half the needed emergency relief, an amount the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) estimates at R70bn for the short-term rescue of businesses, workers and households.

According to the National Treasury, R36.2bn in new spending is provided, together with a further R2.65bn in "reprioritisation" (moving existing funds around). In addition, there is R5.3bn from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) to help affected businesses pay wages via the temporary employer/employee relief scheme (Ters)...