We do not know the exact mandate Tito Mboweni was given when he had to rapidly replace Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister earlier this month.
In various media engagements after his appointment, Mboweni made it clear that he had to be talked into the job as his preference was to remain in the private sector and be unconstrained in his random musings as a Twitter luminary.
The finance minister's position in the cabinet is unlike any other. If you do not know what you are doing, it will chew you up and spit you out.
It is a beleaguered portfolio, made even worse by the awful economic climate and a government that is short on ideas about how to reverse the decline.
There was another dimension that had to be factored in when President Cyril Ramaphosa offered Mboweni the position.
Mboweni believes that when he was governor of the Reserve Bank, he was part of a "dream team" that ensured optimum economic performance.
In September, when there was still no hint that Nene would crash and burn and that he would land in the hot seat, Mboweni tweeted nostalgically: "There was a time when people talked about the 3 TMs (Prez Thabo Mbeki, Trevor Manuel and Tito Mboweni). The economy even reached 6% GDP growth! Remember that! Down memory lane!! With Prez CR, we can do that again but inclusive growth. Doable."
There is a risk that Mboweni's new position could impair his legacy and curtail his bragging rights.
But he would not have agreed to simply be a place-holder for seven months. He wants to make an impression, even if it means kicking over a few tables in the government and the tripartite alliance.
In the medium-term budget policy statement he presented this week, Mboweni showed where he wants to colour outside the lines.
There was an assumption that Mboweni would simply read out Nene's speech, but he says the statement was written only last weekend.
The numbers and the thrust would have been the same irrespective of who read out the statement, but Mboweni was able to push some boundaries - certainly more than his predecessor could.
Mboweni's charisma carried the speech even with the dire messaging on the fiscal outlook.
As with Ramaphosa, people generally want to like and trust him. Most people know the finance minister is unlikely to use his position for any nefarious purpose.
Mboweni is not dependent on this job and, in the limited time he has, he can broach contentious issues that would make others recoil. As a member of the ANC national executive committee, he also has political standing and outranks many of his cabinet colleagues.
He was therefore able to place the huge cost of the public-service wage bill firmly on the agenda, and did not seem to be worried about being shouted down by labour.
He also ventured into the excessive size of the cabinet, which is likely to make many of his colleagues nervous. While Ramaphosa has avoided speaking about when and how he intends to reduce the size of the executive, Mboweni suggested that the number of ministers and deputy ministers should be slashed by more than half.
The president also previously gave assurances that the government would not retrench 30,000 public servants. Mboweni has suggested that the minister of public service & administration should lead discussions on how to reduce the wage bill.
"Employers and employees should take the time to understand the nature of the beast. They must then decide what to do, and when they both know where they stand, a proper conversation can start," Mboweni said.
"The headline is the wage bill, what drives it and how to reduce it. Reducing it does not necessarily mean retrenchments," he said.
Opening such a conversation a few months before an election could be politically suicidal, but Mboweni does not seem to care.
The question of what to do with the money-munching national carrier is also back on the agenda after Mboweni announced yet another bailout for SAA and SA Express.
The government has been circling the issue of selling off the airline for several years, as the subject of privatisation agitates the ANC's leftist partners. The minister's push for "even more radical measures" and his declaration that there "should be no holy cows" means he is ready for the fight.
The real fight, however, will be over Mboweni's reopening of the touchy issue of e-tolls in Gauteng, which the ANC had effectively kicked into touch. It has now been raised again, out of the blue, catching the ANC in Gauteng off guard. Premier David Makhura immediately countered by saying they would discuss other options with the president.
But Mboweni has warned that the inability to curtail spending would make a bailout from the International Monetary Fund inevitable - and all these politically explosive issues would then be beyond the government's control.
Mboweni might turn out to be a bull in a china shop, but he is also making SA face its demons.
He should be allowed to get on with it...