More Machiavellian wisdom – a good system doesn’t necessarily follow a bad one.

You have to wake up very early in the morning to get anything past the Biznews community. As I was reminded by a number of kind (and some not so) nudges telling me Victor Hugo's "nothing new under the sun" was actually plagiarising King Solomon's words in the biblical book of Ecclesiastes.

There was also an apt addition from one who has studied The Prince, and offered an appropriate reminder that the departure of one bad government does not necessarily usher in a better one. Niccolo Machiavelli, he observed, also wrote: "It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system."

Machiavelli added: "For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones. "

Even so, you get the feeling that Zuma and his pals the Guptas have infuriated so many, that right now most South Africans would be happy take their chances.