At the risk of sounding as if I am in the throes of schadenfreude, let me say how sad I feel that John Block, the affable politician from Northern Cape, is going to have a miserable Christmas - but this sadness is eclipsed by my joy at seeing that our criminal justice system still functions.

Four years after being charged, Block, the former Northern Cape chairman of the ANC and Christo Scholtz, the CEO of Trifecta Investments, were on Tuesday each sentenced to an effective 15 years in jail by the Northern Cape High Court.

They were found guilty of corruption and money laundering in October last year, where government leases exceeding R100-million were facilitated with the Trifecta group of companies in Kimberley, Upington, Kuruman, Springbok and Douglas, in exchange for kickbacks.

Central to the scheme was Block himself, ably assisted by some high-ranking government officials, including the head of department for social development Yolanda Botha. She died before the case was concluded.

Northern Cape High Court Judge Mmathebe Phatsoane said, in part, "Scholtz downplayed his role in facilitating the leases that served as a direct capital injection for the Trifecta group of companies that benefited from corrupt activities."

The six Trifecta companies were issued with a R1.2-million fine, while Block's defunct company, Chisane Investments (Pty) Ltd, was spared prosecution as it has since been declared commercially insolvent.

Block, who still maintains he is innocent, has 30 days in which to surrender R2-million of his assets to the state and make a deposit into National Treasury's account.

Scholtz will have R60-million of his assets confiscated, while the Asset Forfeiture Unit previously calculated an amount of R600-million. The duo will also be liable to pay interest on any outstanding amount not paid by the due date.

As I said, the realisation that these men are going to have a miserable Yuletide does not bring a smile to my face.

But what warms the cockles of my heart as a conscientious South African is that this case just might give some of our politicians - and corrupt leaders in the corporate world - sleepless nights as they ponder their malodorous business dealings which have not yet come to light.

The Block matter, certainly the most high-profile case where a prominent politician has been successfully condemned to jail for corruption, will be the subject of many dinner table conversations and braai-side talks for some time.

It's a colourful tale of a prominent politician and a highly successful player in the private sector. The classical epitome to the old adage: it takes two to tango.

Much as corruption is seen as the malady that afflicts our public officials, the other players in the equation - powerful players in the private sector - always get away with their hands clean.

This because they are more adept and experienced at playing these intricate money games. We see their scrubbed faces smiling from the business pages of our newspapers, while their politician friends and co-conspirators scowl from the front pages, trying to explain themselves out of this or the other scam. For this tango of corruption to work properly, for this waltz to flow smoothly, we need two dancers.

These two symbiotically linked at the waist are called: Corruptor and a Corruptee. It seems Block and Scholtz were perfectly matched for this dance which started, back in 2005, until 2015.

I know that this case is not going to erase corruption overnight. But one is heartened to realise that there is still a commitment on the part of our criminal justice system to go the extra mile in identifying and punishing mendacity. One hopes this is the beginning of big, good things to happen in the fight against corruption.

There are many individuals within the public and private sector who have been found to be knee-deep in corruption, but they continue to elude prison.

They are either too powerful politically, or know people who can pull strings in their favour in the criminal justice system.

One also hopes that the outcome in this case will encourage whistleblowers to come out if they witness instances of corruption and profligacy in whatever form.

If each one of us good, hard-working, tax-paying citizens of this country keeps silent in the face of corruption, evil will triumph.

And when evil triumphs it will undermine the gains we have made in trying to shape this country into an exemplary shining beacon of a functioning democracy.