Zuma didn’t get his chips

Even though the plot of the book and McKenzie’s prose are nothing to write home about, Hogarth has to hand it to him when it comes to being imaginative. He has this narrative that has a presidential bodyguard called Carlos being instructed to kill No 1 by giving him a packet of smoked beef Simba chips laced with poison. The plot is apparently foiled when a quick-thinking patriot, who turns out to be 007 McKenzie himself, calls (former) spy boss David Mahlobo to alert him to the danger. The Nkandla Crooner never took a bite of the crisps and lived happily ever after — well, that is, if you exclude the constant irritation of the court defeats he suffers on a regular basis.