As I write this, my neighbourhood has experienced four days of uninterrupted electricity supply, after weeks of frustrating load shedding. Stories of the impact abound in my suburb in Melville, in particular about SMMEs whose equipment has been damaged by the shutdowns, and others who have suffered a huge loss in revenue. These are just the people we come across in everyday encounters. One shudders to think of the picture elsewhere in South Africa, or what it will look like six months from now, not to mention a year.

As I write this, South Africa has sent sniffer dogs and helicopters to Zimbabwe to help recover the bodies of hundreds of people who may have been buried alive in mudslides caused by Cyclone Idai.

I am contemplating: this crisis or that? Which supersedes the other? The fair, rational answer, I hope, is neither. We must confront both with equal purpose, which is why we have selected Zimbabwe as the focus of this edition of SPII Talk.