Dissipating, and often simply robbing, the depleted coffers of the state had become commonplace in Jacob Zuma’s South Africa. It was a pattern that continued apace under the management of Cyril Ramaphosa. In an overcrowded field of contenders for the crown of excrescent expenditure, the annual gathering for all South African heads of diplomatic missions, flown in from around the world, and fed and watered at state expense in Pretoria to hear often rambling discourses from the president, ministers and a clutch of state officials, was a top contender...