In the first quarter of this year South Africa’s normally staid and insignificant mask industry exploded.

Like its peers across the globe it had orders pouring in from the original epicentres of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Locally, a layer of parasitic middlemen sprang up overnight. One local manufacturer contacted by amaBhungane requested anonymity on the unusual basis that being named in the media would exacerbate the unbearable deluge of new business coming their way.