Thabo Kgogo, the 40-year-old chief executive of Johannesburg-listed junior SacOil, is one of many South Africans whose life can be defined by the country’s politics.

His first 18 years were spent living under loathed apartheid governments and his second two decades in a transformed nation, initially headed by Nelson Mandela — the African National Congress leader and civil rights campaigner wjho was a hero to millions in all corners of the globe.