Juba, South Sudan,
June 23, 2021 – The iPad of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa reportedly stolen on Tuesday was found in the suit of Fikile Mbalula, the Minister of Transport.
On Tuesday, social media users light-heartedly called on the police, the Special Investigation Unit, and the Hawks to investigate the missing iPad incident after the Ramaphosa was seen murmuring without the device he uses for speeches and presentations.
The President was one of the trending topics on Twitter Tuesday after netizens saw him puzzled on a live television broadcast asking if someone had stolen his iPad.
“I am waiting for the iPad. Somebody stole my iPad,” the President said as he took to the podium at the National Ports Authority in Cape Town. Some officials, including Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Tyrone Seale, could be heard laughing in the background.
“Somebody has decided to dispossess me of my iPad, so I want that. Can I have my iPad, please? So they stole it. I had my iPad. Do you know where they took my iPad to?” Ramaphosa asked in a viral video recorded by eNCA
The moment went on for minutes before the device was located. The government issued a damage-control statement afterward.
“Thank you, SA. There was no question of the iPad being missing or stolen. The president was making a lighthearted point while waiting for the iPad to be brought to him – which it was before he began his remarks to the media,” a government official said.
However, that did not quell the drama that flourished on social media with one user tweeting that: “It was found in Fikile’s suit.”
