Last week I watched President Cyril Ramaphosa’s two-day testimony at the Zondo commission with very keen interest.

Our president, a man with the golden tongue, has often made questionable statements that any other leader would have been challenged on – particularly by the very bold SA media. Some journalists have argued that this is largely the result of the president’s habit of not taking questions from journalists after making public statements, but I think the issue runs deeper than this. From where I sit, SA media was swept by the “new dawn” wave that Ramaphosa came in with...