It was an ANN7th heaven for satirists

Rajesh Sundaram’s new book, Indentured: Behind the Scenes At Gupta TV, is going to fly off the shelves. If he ever brings out a vastly shortened and heavily illustrated version, it will almost certainly also fly out of the window of the master bedroom at Nkandla and splash down in the firepool.

Yes, people are not going to be happy about what Mr Sundaram – the first and apparently only editor at ANN7 – has revealed about the comically bad propaganda department of Zupta Inc.

Still, it could have been worse. Because, while Mr Sundaram has revealed what he knew, I have no doubt there were secret meetings and confidential memos where even more fantastical and hilarious decisions were made.

We know, for example, that Mr Zuma wanted Mzwanele Manyi to host a talk show, an idea that was canned when Manyi proved entirely unable to pitch even softball questions, preferring to roll balls of candyfloss across the floor.

For Tom Eaton's full column go to Times Select.