There are few things more painful than a proud parent talking about an overachieving child. You can’t shut them up. They go on and on about recent adventures in sentence construction and, later, maths Olympiads and, later, university scholarships. I know one such parent in the quaint seaside hamlet they call Durban, writes Lev David.

The chickens have come home to roost for Aubrey Mokadi, the fallen vice-chancellor of Vaal University of Technology (VUT), almost two years after a government inquiry described his management style as dictatorial and ”delusional”. A Council on Higher Education quality audit found that graduation rates at VUT have, in the past decade, fluctuated between 10% and 14%.

His foes have called it ”an act of madness”, but Robert Mugabe’s move to call elections within two months might prove a masterstroke that will trip up his opponents. But it could also be a move that prolongs his stand-off with the opposition and a regional mediation process with which Mugabe looks increasingly impatient.

Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool, who campaigned strongly in favour of President Thabo Mbeki in the run up to the Polokwane conference, has been summoned to African National Congress headquarters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Sunday.