Social media is notorious for allowing people to hide their true beliefs or personalities behind a screen of performative righteousness. But this week a number of South Africans didn’t so much drop the veil as rip it into shreds and set it on fire, as they broadcast a startlingly honest view of our addiction to terrible government.

This is not a new affliction, of course. We’ve had absolutely rotten rulers since the start, from beauts like Willem Adriaan van der Stel and Shaka to the corrupt racists of the apartheid regime and the desperados who brought you fire-pools, the Guptas, Eskom, Marikana, disappearing railways lines and Bathabile Dlamini...