Ramaphosa wants to paint a picture of a country that was in trouble before he came along and then everything turned around. With the best will in the world, I don't think this is true.

I would like to perform a quick fact-check on one little aspect of the State of the Nation Address (Sona) delivered on Thursday evening by President Cyril Ramaphosa -- a job made substantially easier since the President had the decency and integrity to partly do it himself.

He made the point that over the last two years, the number of jobs created had increased every quarter, and South Africa now had more people in employment than before the pandemic. This is correct, laudable and a relief, and is worth pointing out because it's not well known. He went on to say that because the number of people entering the job market each year is greater than the number of jobs created, the unemployment rate is "the highest it's ever been". Once again, quite true.

It just so happens I was arguing with a reader about this question. They claimed that journalists, myself included, were biased against the government's economic performance, and that we -- inadvertently or carelessly -- seek negative statistics to back up our preconceived beliefs. My counterargument is that anyone who thinks SA's economic performance has been up to snuff over the past 15 years is living in...