South Africa: President’s Missing iPad Goes Viral

South Africans are able to find humour almost anywhere, and the latest that has them chortling is when President Cyril Ramaphosa was about to deliver a speech in Cape Town. only to discover that his iPad had been “dispossessed”.

On Tuesday, 22 June, Ramaphosa was just about to make an announcement regarding the country’s rail authority, Transnet, when he noticed that his device containing his address was missing.

Looking confused, he was quick to joke: “This is the problem of always handing your gadgets to other people. I had my iPad. I had it in my hand. It’s gone. I have lost it, it seems.”

South Africa’s first citizen then said: “Somebody decided they want to dispossess me of my iPad, so I want that.”

Eventually, Athi Geleba, head of Digital Communications in the Presidency, tweeted that the “First iPad had been found”.
However, by then social media was flooded with memes and jokes from citizens. Many were also laughing at the fact that it swiftly became the number one trending topic of the day on Twitter.

One user tweeted: “My love life [sic] is Ramaphosa’s lost iPad”

Another was more cheeky: “I felt the same way Ramaphosa felt when he lost his ipad when the billions of rands went missing allegedly. [sic]”