In the aftermath of last week's politically orchestrated rioting, and amid open dissension among those charged with our national security, the nation sits with more questions than answers.
It is to President Cyril Ramaphosa, our head of state and commander-in-chief, that we must look to provide those answers.
Ramaphosa's candour in admitting that the state was caught unprepared is welcome. But it remains cold comfort for a nation reeling from the worst episode of public violence since the advent of democracy.
The first question is why the government was caught off guard, despite the warning signs having been there for months. The organisers of the chaos, purportedly aimed at protesting against the arrest of Jacob Zuma for defying a Constitutional Court order, did not exactly hide their intentions.
Second, the government knew about the serious weaknesses in the national intelligence service, upon which the high-level review panel on the State Security Agency (SSA) shone a harsh light.
The panel, headed by academic and former minister of safety and security Sydney Mufamadi, recommended an extensive overhaul of SA's intelligence and security architecture, noting that this would require "a good dose of determination".
Among other things, the panel found that the intelligence community had been contaminated by factionalism in the ANC and had shifted away from the prescripts of the constitution, while the SSA had become a "cash cow" for many interests.
It seems that little was done to implement the recommendations of the panel, released in 2018. The nation deserves to know why.
It is to President Cyril Ramaphosa, our head of state and commander-in-chief, that we must look to provide those answers
Apart from the concerns it raises about public security, the violence this month places a question mark over the president's avowed intention to attract the foreign investment that is essential for economic growth, job creation and social stability.
Ramaphosa has promised that "once this crisis has passed" there would be a "thorough review" of the state's preparedness and its response. Given the gravity of what has happened, he does not have to wait for the crisis to pass.
For that might not happen any time soon. To start with, the state does not seem to have been able to apprehend all the instigators, who are unlikely to just sit and twiddle their thumbs. Ramaphosa himself cautioned that the plotters' networks have not been dismantled.
The police have detained many of the looters. But it is the arrest of the "big fish" that will restore public confidence and give credibility to the president's stated intention to turn things around.
Therefore, speed is of the essence. Ramaphosa's review must surely focus on the security cluster, key ministers of which publicly disagreed with each other, in one instance with him as well.
He must ask whether these ministers are competent and qualified for their jobs. He must also deal with the apparent systemic weaknesses in the functioning of the security establishment, including the police, the intelligence service and the defence force.
Following the anarchy, and the tardy response to it from the law enforcement agencies, South Africans are justified in wondering if the security establishment is ready to deal with internal or external threats. Events of the past two weeks suggest otherwise.
Given his narrow electoral victory at the ANC's Nasrec conference in 2017, Ramaphosa's actions have tended to be swayed by the party's internal factional interests.
But after arguably the biggest threat to our democracy yet, it is imperative that he put the collective interests and safety of South Africans above the need to keep the peace in his party. The nation demands it. The constitution implores him to do so. And his own oath of office leaves him no option.
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