The Zondo commission has revealed vast graft in South Africa

To the new arrival at the Vrede Dairy, named after a town in the Free State that is not so much sleepy as catatonic, its iron gate is unremarkable. But to Ephraim Dlamini the structure is a symbol of what went wrong in one of the most notorious cases of “state capture”: the era of looting in South Africa allegedly orchestrated by Jacob Zuma (pictured), the former president; his son, Duduzane; allies such as Ace Magashule, the former premier of the Free State province; and Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, three Indian-born brothers.

The provincial government, which funded the dairy, spun it as a scheme to help poor locals. In reality, it was taxpayers who were milked. They pumped in 280m rand (currently $17.6m), most of which seemingly ended up in Gupta-linked accounts. Procurement prices were vastly inflated: the gate, and accompanying security post, cost 2.6m rand. And the supposed beneficiaries were kept far away. “We weren’t allowed to enter the farm,” recalls Mr Dlamini. “And if you talked about it you were in the grave.”