There's something to be said for reading news - and the sting of not being informed

Even a cursory search of Daily Maverick investigative journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh's credentials would have had alarm bells clanging for anyone considering offering him a bribe of any kind

- Marianne Thamm

Should colleague Pieter-Louis Myburgh stroll past you, say at an airport, you would notice a young, solid man with a purposeful walk.

Myburgh is not tall, but he is also not short.

If you lived in the real world, you might clock his demeanour as a person who knows what he is doing. Some might even look at him and think, “I wonder if he is a cop?”

Don't laugh. A while back, South African rock star Karen Zoid performed in the Karoo gem, Prince Albert. Afterwards, in the Irish Bush Pub, four men sat alone nursing beers at a table to one side. Their shoes, their shirts, their moustaches (Myburgh does not have a moustache) screamed “the law”, at least to this South African who grew up in the '70s and '80s.

I leaned in and whispered to my born-free daughter: “They're cops.”

“You're just paranoid,” she replied.

Turns out the four big guys were indeed cops, but retired ones.

I should have placed a hefty bet on the table. Maybe R60,000 cash — but only randelas, please, and not those old notes with the Big Five on them, which are about to expire and can only be exchanged at the Reserve Bank.

Reading for life, not for fun