Reacting to the announcement that France's Jean- Marie Gustave Le Clezio won the Nobel prize for literature, renowned South African author Andre Brink told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Thursday he was glad, if unsurprised.

"I'm very glad about that. I think he's (JMG Le Clezio) certainly a worthy person and has been for years," Brink, who lived in France for several years as a young man, said in an interview at his home in Cape Town.

The Swedish Academy's choice had been "certainly above suspicion" this year and last (when British author Doris Lessing scooped the prize), he said, while adding, "I thought they might have turned to Africa this year."