WHAT do highly rated journos Fred Khumalo and Justice Malala have in common?Quite a lot actually.

WHAT do highly rated journos Fred Khumalo and Justice Malala have in common?Quite a lot actually.

First, the two men have launched books by publisher Moeletsi Mbeki's new publishing company on the same day.

Second, both are award-winning writers who are appreciated by the public for their creative juices.

Third, both writers use humour to address serious issues ranging from politics to culture.

Fourth, both are fascinated by South African politics.

Fifth, both their books, Let Them Eat Cake and Zuluboy Gone Crazy , are compilations of their popular columns in the Sunday Times and Financial Mail .

Malala's weekly column,Food for Thought, appears in the Financial Mail and Khumalo's appears in Sunday Times.

I know that if you are a follower of these two gentlemen's columns, you are probably thinking, why should I read the same thing I have already read?

But reading something in a newspaper, which you probably throw away after the weekend, is not the same thing as owning a book containingthese columns.

Besides, some of the subject matter in the books is as relevant today as it was when first penned. And besides, humour is humour. It can amuse you today, tomorrow and many years later.

This is where I think the two gentlemen of the press were clever to publish their columns in a book.

Judging by the dignitaries who honoured the invitation to the launch at Circa in Rosebank, Johannesburg, on Thursday, Malala and Khumalo's columns actually do touch a lot of people, including some of the most influential intellectuals in the country.

It therefore stands to reason that they must be saying something right in their columns.

Being the race-obsessed country that we are, I've heard murmurs from certain quarters that the two men only write for a specific market and to the exclusion of others. That is a matter for another day.