Given the multiple crises SA is facing and the lack of capacity in cabinet, President Cyril Ramaphosa must, in his state of the nation address (Sona) on Thursday, dismiss the incumbents and appoint an emergency cabinet or the equivalent of a government of national unity. This would consist of the best skills in the country to steer it out of the worst crisis in generations.

SA’s multiple problems are so grave as to represent a war zone, in which the country is under threat of collapsing. This demands an extraordinary, all-of-society approach. The talents of all South Africans, no matter their colour, ethnicity or political affiliation, must be used to rebuild the economy and address ethnic, racial and social fragmentation, and the breakdown of the rule of law.

During the second world war, when the UK was under threat of being overrun by Nazi Germany, the country’s Conservative Party prime minister Winston Churchill put together a war cabinet of the country’s best talents, including leaders of the opposition Labour Party...