You can glean a lot about a person’s character and values by looking at his friends. Every nation has long known this. Almost every language has embedded in its vocabulary proverbs on character and friends.In Japan they say: "When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends." Our ancestors here in Africa have long offered: "Show me your friend and I will show you your character."But it seems a man as smart as Eskom boss Brian Molefe is blind to this wisdom. He has long nailed his colours to the Gupta mast, insisting in July this year that "the Guptas are my friends, and I sometimes visit them". The Guptas returned the favour and told the public protector that Molefe "is a very good friend".Molefe clearly hasn’t heeded the advice of Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote: "We are all travellers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend."After SA banks closed the accounts of the Gupta family businesses earlier this year...
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