Our grand tour of Cape corruption starts at Vergelegen aka Nkandla 1.0. Since its establishment in 1700, Vergelegen has stood out as one of the most gorgeous Cape wine estates. But don’t let the noble proportions of the Cape Dutch architecture and the handsome camphor trees fool you.

After granting himself a vast tract of land “about 12 hours distant from the Cape”, Cape Colony governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel used company seed, livestock and material to establish, “a country seat, large beyond measure, and of such broad dimensions, as if it were a whole town”...