Populist rhetoric will come back to haunt you

There is an old saying: If you want to influence the process you have to be in the room and at the meeting. 

In politics, if you want to know what is going on, you often have to stay in the room after the meeting. Observe who greets whom on the way out or who gets unto a huddle together and you can learn a lot about what is going on behind the scenes. 

Last Wednesday after the Budget Speech, I hung back in the gallery and watched. As Pravin Gordhan made his way out the door only a few people came over to greet him. They were mostly his SACP comrades. The rest hastily grabbed their Ipads, put their heads down and made a run for it.