President Cyril Ramaphosa’s notoriously slow-moving in-tray has never smelt as bad as it does now. His health minister, Zweli Mkhize, is ensnared in a corruption scandal that he surely cannot survive. His energy minister, Gwede Mantashe, has given a 20-year power contract to arguably the filthiest form of energy imaginable —  gas-fired floating power stations that will park in our ports and pollute air and sea at the same time — and his police commissioner, Khehla Sitole, is firing good senior cops while himself ducking and diving from the law.

It can’t go on, you would think, even though Ramaphosa has a seemingly infinite capacity to stand still in the middle of a firefight and to feign surprise when a loud noise goes off...