Eleven years ago, out in the cool, coastal waters of Gansbaai on the Western Cape’s Atlantic seaboard, Dr Sara Andreotti was awed by how many great white sharks she would encounter in the white shark capital of the world: 15 a day on average.

Last week judge Dennis Davis was entertaining friends visiting SA from England. The conversation inevitably turned to his proposal for a new range of "lifestyle audits" for the wealthy, to close the tap on the billions vanishing in lost tax revenue.

Western Cape premier Alan Winde has called on the government to lift the ban on alcohol sales, soften the curfew, and reopen beaches as the province has passed the peak of its second surge in coronavirus infections.

President Cyril Ramaphosa told the ANC at the start of the year that passing legislation to allow for land expropriation without compensation is a priority for the ruling party this year

As the new year gets under way, property rights – their maintenance or degradation – look set to be a major policy theme.

Most South Africans are now understandably keen to see the end of 2020 and are hoping for better times in 2021, after what has been a rollercoaster year for SA’s political economy.