When former Transnet CEO Brian Molefe appeared before the Zondo commission on state capture in March last year, he was characteristically coy, arrogant and wouldn’t miss the slightest opportunity to mock the evidence leaders who were putting hard-hitting questions to him.

Playing to the gallery of the so-called RET supporters, he presented himself as an innocent, even naive victim of a conspiracy by faceless people who had an axe to grind with him...