1. Here’s a thread that will annoy almost everyone on SA Twitter. Thesis: both the government and the official opposition Democratic Alliance have done pretty well on Covid-19 thus far. First the government...

2. CR got the single biggest strategic call right: lockdown (relatively) early. He did so by listening to experts and got key stakeholders onboard. He then communicated his decision in a way that inspired some confidence.

3. This doesn’t mean he got everything right. Took a while for public sector testing to get going. The alcohol and tobacco bans are annoying at best and counter-productive at worst. The closing of “non essential” sections of shops just silly. More significantly...

4. There isn’t (yet?) an economic security plan to rival the clarity and coherence of the health security plan. And of course the biggest failure so far, by some distance, is the behaviour of the security services...

5. There is just no excuse for the apparent murder of at least 8 people; the beatings and the humiliation. These violate the constitution’s foundational value: human dignity. And they have not been openly, honestly or decisively addressed by the president.

6. Meanwhile John Steenhuisen and the Democratic Alliance got their big strategic call right: unambiguous support for the government’s initial lockdown but without surrendering their critical faculties, which would be a failure in an opposition.

7. And it has gone further by producing constructive ideas through its initial “blue book” document and now its “smart lockdown” ideas.

8. It’s one misstep was a failure to communicate its response to the lockdown extension properly. And getting communication right is a fundamental competency in opposition.

9. But all-in-all South Africa’s political leadership has broadly risen to the occasion. Imagine that! And imagine both sides actually acknowledging that? Of course, there is a long way to go...

10. So this is no time to wallow in self-congratulation. It’s going to get much worse before it gets better. But if government and political parties put people first and learn from mistakes and put them right, then the beloved country will make it through this tragedy.