In South Africa, all attention yesterday was focused on what Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan had to say in parliament.
With the economy under pressure, questions over education funding and the finance minister himself embroiled in a political row, Mr Gordhan’s mini-budget statement was eagerly awaited.
But this morning, South Africans are waking up to the news that President Jacob Zuma may have nodded off during the minister’s lengthy statement.
Report
And the Rand Daily Mail news site has five possible interpretations:
I was checking my Twitter timeline
My ear was itchy, I was rubbing it on my shoulder
I was trying to listen to what ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu was muttering under his breath behind me
I concentrate better when my eyes are closed
Sleep is just an alternative state of consciousness.
On the video from parliament’s You Tube channel Mr Zuma is shown as being awake just over a minute later.
His office has not yet commented on the reports.
We’ve posted an entry on images which appear to show South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma dozing in parliament, but he is not the only African head of state caught with their eyes closed.
It’s happened to Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, in power since 1980, on a number of occasions.
In April this year he appeared to briefly nod off during a press conference in Japan with Prime Minister Prime Minister Shinzo Abe:
In September 2012, a photographer caught him with his eyes closed during a meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York:
In 2014, Ugandan TV station NTV suggested that President Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, was napping in parliament, the Guardian newspaper reported at the time.
The station said he has his eyes closed.
A government spokesman said that he was in fact meditating. NTV was temporarily banned form covering presidential events.
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