One day – Mr Speaker – when the history of the ANC is written, corruption will be noted as one of the reasons for this liberation party’s demise. Historians will no doubt have quite a few nice things to say about the party that fought for democracy and indeed did lead South Africa into democracy.

Every now and again, when the circus comes to town, there is always this one clown whose trick is to spin plates on sticks. He will start off by spinning three plates, going from one to the other to make sure they are spinning fast enough. You see, plate spinning relies on the gyroscopic effect, [...]