South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa looked shell-shocked at an event on Tuesday where he said someone “stole” his iPad.
However, his aides said it was all “a joke”.
The president was moments away from delivering a keynote address for the establishment of the Transnet National Ports Authority in Cape Town but could not find the iPad containing his speech.
A video of the incident trended on social media on Tuesday.
“Somebody stole my iPad.
“Somebody decided that they want to dispossess me of my iPad,” Ramaphosa can be heard saying.
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The president noted that it was one of the consequences of having to hand over his gadgets to others for safe keeping.
“I had my iPad. Do you know where they took my iPad to? This is the problem of always handing out your gadgets to other people. It’s always best that I keep all these things with me all the time. I had my iPad. I had it in my hand. It’s gone. I lost it, it seems,” he states.
“Can I have my iPad please,” the president pleads at some point as seen in the video.
A distraught Ramaphosa then sat down until a back-up copy of the speech was brought to him.
However, the presidency denied that the president’s iPad was stolen, saying it was all a joke.
“There was no question of the iPad being missing or stolen. The President was making a light-hearted point while waiting for the iPad to be brought to him – which it was before he began his remarks to media,” presidential media aide, Tyrone Seal, said.