This week's state of the nation address by President Cyril Ramaphosa must have been his most challenging yet, coming as it did when the nation is caught in the midst of the perfect storm of the Covid-19 pandemic and an economy mired in stagnation.

Given our multifold crisis, Ramaphosa did well to narrow his and the nation's focus going forward to four priorities, resisting the temptation of a long shopping list that would have tested the state's already suspect capacity and blunted its focus...