When the queen mother of the Royal Bafokeng nation strides through the foyer of the single-storey office block that serves as the legato (royal palace) members of staff jump to their feet and mutter “Mmemogolo” (Queen Mother), just as the Bafokeng have for hundreds of years. While she dresses simply in African print cloth, she has a regal air – and no wonder.

After her marriage to the last king but two, she was for more than 30 years queen of the Bafokeng’s traditional rural community of some 300,000 people in South Africa’s north-western bush. Now, following the death of her husband in 1995 – and of her two eldest sons – her 40-year-old third son, is on the throne. All of which makes her, in traditional African circles, something like the equivalent of a dowager duchess. And yet, given the kingdom’s recently acquired multibillion-dollar fortune in platinum-mining stock, industrial grandee might be a more appropriate tag.