The blacklisting of the Gupta brothers and their associate Salim Essa by the US treasury is by far the most consequential action taken in the aftermath of their state capture project.

The action means all their properties and financial interests in the US will be frozen and they or their companies will not be able to do business in that country.

In a statement on Friday, the US treasury said: “The Gupta family leveraged its political connections to engage in widespread corruption and bribery, capture government contracts, and misappropriate state assets.”

It is exactly these words South Africans are desperate to hear, but from an SA judge in an SA court, after a trial for which, for heaven’s sake everybody knows, there is abundant evidence.

So far, all we have had is a raid on the Gupta compound in Saxonwold, in which no Guptas were found; a seizure of assets from the house and other locations; and then the return of the assets when the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was unable to convince the court it had a reasonable chance of convicting the family. Had it not been for the Zondo Commission, it would seem as if the Zuma decade of looting had all been a bad dream.

In London on Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa tried to explain his government’s lack of progress by telling his audience that corruption and state capture was much deeper than anyone realised initially and had cost the state between R500bn and R1-trillion. But, he said, “the fuse has been lit” and nobody could put it out.

While the SA public is fast losing patience with Ramaphosa’s promises that things will turn around, there are some grounds to believe that maybe, just maybe, the wheels of justice have been given some oil. Apart from its new head Shamila Batohi, who began work earlier in 2019, and the appointment of Cape advocate Hermione Cronje to a new directorate that will focus on serious crimes, the treasury has assured the NPA that funds will be found to fund state capture prosecutions.