Fat is bad but beautiful

MORNING classes had just begun in Pellsrus primary school in the Eastern Cape province when a nine-year-old pupil dropped dead from a heart attack in front of his classmates. He weighed around 115kg (a little over 250lb). His little heart could not cope any more.

Last month President Jacob Zuma's larger-than-life nephew, Khulubuse Zuma, a mining magnate not yet 40, said he could not testify at an insolvency hearing into one of his gold mines because he was too ill with a heart disease owing to his weight and lavish lifestyle.