At times I am compelled to conclude that corporate South Africa is in denial about the importance of politics. It’s not so much denial about the existence of politics but a denialism that says: ‘We can cut ourselves off from all this stuff and nonsense and stick to what we do best - making money.’ But in the context of the challenge of sustainable development, this is fantasy land.

A briefing to the exco of one of South Africa’s largest banking groups on the subject of how political and corporate power is ‘congealing’ into a new establishment, provoked the following first three responses: ‘Corruption in government is getting out of hand’; ‘There is a crisis of values’; ‘Is there anything we should be doing?’