Ramaphosa Russia

Cyril Ramaphosa and Vladimir putin Photo: SA Gov / Twitter

Thuma mina… to sleep: Ramaphosa accused of “dozing off” in Russia

Imagine flying all the way to Russia just to fall asleep in a conference hall. Cyril Ramaphosa has been accused of snoozing on the job on Wednesday.

Ramaphosa Russia

Cyril Ramaphosa and Vladimir putin Photo: SA Gov / Twitter

President Ramaphosa has been jet-setting across the world in October, attending summits in both London and mainland Europe. His busy schedule seemingly caught up with him on Wednesday, however, after Cyril was accused of falling asleep on the job during his trip to Russia.

Ramaphosa is currently in Sochi – the picturesque wintery city which has hosted the Olympic Games and the football World Cup. However, Cyril had no high-octane sport to keep him engaged during this bilateral meeting between the two nations. Mr “thuma mina” might have just been caught napping this time round.

Did Cyril Ramaphosa fall asleep in Russia

The screenshot, taken from SABC‘s coverage of the international event, has since gone viral on Twitter. A branch of the EFF have even accused Ramaphosa of “wasteful expenditure”, by having a quick snooze on the taxpayer’s bill. The criticism – arguably taken out of context – has been fierce.

Russia-Africa Summit – latest news:

Wednesday’s event in Sochi commemorates the diplomatic ties forged by Africa and Russia over recent years. In return for our president, the Russian Air Force has sent two of their high-powered bombers over to Tshwane. The pair of war instruments landed safely in Tshwane earlier this morning.

Both Putin and Ramaphosa made time for each other on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa Summit. Cyril eventually beat his random bout of narcolepsy to engage in a dialogue with his Moscow-based counterpart:

“Russia places special emphasis on its cooperation with South Africa and we have an excellent history of relations. But it is symbolic that our meeting today is taking place on the sidelines of the first Russia−Africa Summit. We assign high priority to developing relations and cooperating further with your country.”

“This includes the development of natural resources, energy, industrial production, transport, agriculture and humanitarian projects. I am delighted to note that last year our mutual trade increased by 28.5 percent and reached $1 billion. But this is not enough. We can achieve much better results. I hope that our contacts today can give a boost to this development.”

Vladimir Putin

Cyril Ramaphosa stirred from his slumber

Cyril, who may have been dreaming of Mmusi Maimane’s imminent resignation, gave an amicable retort.

“We obviously welcome this first Russia−Africa Summit because it gives us an opportunity to strengthen our relationship with Russia but also to be part of this whole effort of strengthening Russia’s relationship with the African continent. So it is wonderful for us to be here.”

“Our relationship does not stem from yesterday. It has been a relationship forged in struggle, and in many ways South Africa, free South Africa, is what it is today also largely because of the support that we got from the people of Russia and your Government. So thank you very much for the support.”

Cyril Ramaphosa