Mines are increasingly run not by engineers, but by businessmen, such as Bobby Godsell, chief executive of AngloGold, and Chris Thompson, chairman of Gold Fields.

ECONOMIST: South African gold mining

Bobby Godsell, the former head of AngloGold, became one of Mr Dlamini's mentors after convincing him to join the group in the mid-1990s, fresh from England's rain and libraries.

ECONOMIST: Face value

On November 5th it was reported that Mr Maroga had not been pushed after all, but had resigned after a clash with the board's chairman, Bobby Godsell, who is white.

ECONOMIST: A race row over electricity

Eskom, the state-owned utility in which many experienced white managers had been too quickly pushed aside, is now investing again in new plant under a new chairman, Bobby Godsell, a veteran mining executive.

ECONOMIST: White flight from South Africa

Bobby Godsell, a former chairman of AngloGold Ashanti, the world's third-biggest gold-mining company, who is a member of Mr Manuel's commission, says the odds of South Africa's mines being nationalised are as remote as America's Federal Reserve Bank being abolished by the Republican Tea Party.

ECONOMIST: Nationalisation in South Africa