Remember Alfred Nzo? He was a stalwart of South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle, serving as secretary-general of the African National Congress in exile from 1969 to 1991, before becoming a Parliamentarian and Foreign Affairs Minister when the country transitioned to democracy. He was a skilled diplomat, but he will also be remembered for frequently catching forty winks while the august House was in session.

Older readers will recall the many cartoons of him dozing off, with “Nzzzzzzzzzzzz”, instead of his name, accompanying the sketches, to much comic effect.

But the dear departed avuncular Mr Nzo is not the only high-profile individual famous for public snoozing. There are plenty – both on these shores and abroad. An example from a few years ago is former Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa, who took a nap during a Parliamentary debate focusing on Human Rights Day in 2022. The debate was about entrenching the culture of human rights in the fight against racism, xenophobia and related intolerances.

Had it been in days gone by, when recording Parliamentary proceedings was forbidden, he would have gotten away with it. But taking advantage of the liberties afforded by modern rules, Leon Schreiber, a mere opposition MP at the time, shared a video of the Minister’s “siesta” on social media, accompanied by this caption: “Here is a member of [President Cyril] Ramaphosa’s poverty Cabinet, Nathi Mthethwa, fast asleep during a session of Parliament. The [Democratic Alliance’s] motion of no confidence in this Cabinet has never been more urgent.”

A few years earlier, in 2016, even higher- profile “sleepists” – to borrow the term from former Economic Freedom Fighters MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi – were caught resting their eyes when they were supposed to be following, or participating in, debates in the House.

One of the individuals was Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who, as South Africa’s International Relations and Cooperation Minister, was the country’s top diplomat. Despite the weight of such responsibility, she still allowed herself to doze off during the impeachment debate of former President Jacob Zuma in April 2016.

In the second incident – in October of the same year – Zuma himself could not resist the temptation to dash into dreamland about an hour and 14 minutes into the presentation of a lengthy Medium Term Budget Policy Statement by his Finance Minister, the late Pravin Gordhan. Naturally, this caused outrage among opposition politicians and ordinary citizens alike, as the statement was billed as one of the most important on that year’s Parliamentary calendar. This was because it highlighted the South African government’s strategy to avert a credit downgrade. Nevertheless, many found still images and video footage of a slumbering Zuma downright hilarious.

But, as a sleeping head of State or government, Zuma had no shortage of peers – both on the continent and beyond. In Uganda, the powers that be took the drastic step of banning one of the country’s television stations from covering Presidential events after it aired images of the first citizen snoozing in Parliament. Attempting to spin the incident away, a government spokesperson said: “The President has habits; he meditates, and they know it, and they still go out and say he was sleeping.”

Over in Japan, in 2024, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba drifted into lala-land during Parliamentary proceedings, an incident that set X (formerly Twitter) on fire, attracting almost 30-million views.

It appears this habit follows those we elect to run State affairs even when they step into Cabinet meetings – if reports coming out of Zambia are anything to go by. Earlier this month, President Hakainde Hichilema publicly complained about this lack of “attentiveness” by some of his Ministers, attributing it to “indulgence” and a lack of self-control.

“In Cabinet, somebody is sleeping at 10:00. The question is: Where were they . . . if you can start conking there? To me, that is a crime, a serious crime,” he said.

“So, how do you participate in a meeting when you are sleeping? The message is very clear: You are not interested in Cabinet deliberations on behalf of Zambians. So, why are you sitting there?”

Hichilema is spot-on. The logical course of action? Fire the sleepists.