At an Aids orphanage in Orange Farm, there’s a man with no legs sitting in a wheelchair. Behind him, children are playing on an abandoned car seat. Embracing them, an L-shaped building with bright paintings, and childish writing beckons: “I luv you.”

This scene greeted Icasa inspectors one Friday afternoon when they came to confiscate the equipment that linked this orphanage to the rest of the world. The inspectors had just cut the lifeline of a young entrepreneurs’ internet café and a business development hub, before they closed in on the Aids home.