The wheels of justice are finally turning in South Africa

SO BAD WASGDPNPA corruption under Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s president from 2009 to 2018, that people referred to it as “state capture”. Cyril Ramaphosa, Mr Zuma’s successor, thinks it cost the country 1trn rand ($95bn) in looted funds and lost . And that is just the tangible expense. State capture also deepened a pervasive sense that, 25 years after apartheid, South Africans are dangerously short of trust in each other and hope for the future.The person charged with restoring some of both is Shamila Batohi, who left the International Criminal Court to take charge of South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority () in February. Her appointment is central to Mr Ramaphosa’s efforts to clean house. “Everyone says there is a lot on my shoulders,” says Ms Batohi. “The people of South Africa are impatient, understandably so.”