Supporters of  ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) president Bathabile Dlamini breathed a sigh of relief when she was handed a suspended sentence by the Johannesburg magistrate’s court last week.

Her backers, clad in ANC colours, shed tears of joy and hugged each other when magistrate Betty Khumalo gave Dlamini four years in prison or a R200,000 fine. Half of the sentence was suspended for five years...