The potholes that were there on Sunday were still there on Tuesday. South Africans are not stupid. It took six local government elections since the end of apartheid to drive home a simple point — that you can vote till you’re blue in the face and it will make absolutely no difference to your material existence, especially if, like many of your fellow citizens, you are struggling to survive from one day to the next.

On the day after the municipal elections on Monday, load-shedding resumed and the petrol price shot up to record levels. This time the hasty handing out of cheap homes, the shameless doling out of cash and promises of utopia simply did not land. Officials were scrambling to explain record low voter turnout. The rain. The virus. The faulty machines. It’s quite simple, actually. The people are gatvol...