Meet the inland taipan and common taipan — two of the world’s most dangerous snakes. The inland taipan is estimated to be 20 times as venomous as a common cobra. The common taipan has a kill rate second only to the black mamba, nearing 100%. Now imagine being on the same flight as these guys.

A mystery hangs over the sudden departure of the Director General of Water Affairs and Forestry, Jabu Sindane, from his office this week. Employees at the department were shocked when they arrived in their office on Monday, to be met with a message stating that Sindane had resigned on Friday.

Jimmy Manyi, chairperson of the Commission for Employment Equity and president of the Black Management Forum (BMF), hit headlines this week after he proposed to Parliament that white women should be struck off a list of groups recognised by the employment-equity legislation as previously disadvantaged.

Plans to open up parts of Tsitsikamma — South Africa’s premier marine protected area — to recreational fishing appear to have been shelved for the moment. The proposal drew criticism from environmental groups such as the WWF, which called it a ”parochial and political decision to appease highly vociferous local stakeholders”.

A notorious security policeman, retired Lieutenant General Sebastiaan ”Basie” Smit, might soon rue the day that he turned down an offer from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to join former law and order minister Adriaan Vlok in the dock recently. Speculation about whether Smit will be prosecuted has been rife.

There will be no jail time for the five men in the Vlok trial when they stand in the dock in the Pretoria High Court, the Mail & Guardian learned this week. Instead, a plea bargain, secured last week, will be presented to the court. Earlier this month the M&G was told that, in terms of a plea bargain, neither Van der Merwe nor Vlok will serve prison terms.

About 30km outside Potchefstroom visitors are greeted by the sign, in Afrikaans: “Potchefstroom not Tswana beer” — a reference to the town’s popular home-grown beer, Tlokwe. The sign has irritated Potchefstroom mayor Maphetle Maphetle and, in the Potchefstroom community, the association with Tlokwe has resonated. Students joke about living in a brewery, while people in Ikageng scoff at the link.

Zimbabweans who want to sneak into South Africa illegally have to be resourceful, brave and cunning. First, their journey takes them to the South African border. One option for crossing is to use syndicates operating from Beit Bridge, which use South African-registered vehicles to transport people from Bulawayo to Johannesburg for a fee ranging between R800 and R1 000