The State of the Nation Address (SONA or SOTN), delivered by president Jacob Zuma last night, has become an established source of entertainment for South African social network users - many of whom found themselves unclothed by the end of the speech.
Spurred on by 5fm DJ Gareth Cliff, the informal theme for this year's address was “SOTNundress”. This followed the massive Twitter event that was the #SOTN drinking game last year.
The rules, as defined by Cliff, were: “Every time the president: 1. Laughs, 2. Says 'absolutely', 3. Says 'poverty', 4. Touches his glasses with his middle finger, or 5. Seems to have been distracted by an attractive woman in Parliament, you lose an item of clothing.”
Cliff and his more than 230 000 followers on Twitter easily got the SOTNundress hashtag to trend nationally during the event. Some of the tweets included:
“We're totally screwed. That was a cough, laugh, push, cough, laugh combo. I'm down to 4 items. #SOTNundress”.
“Think Julius played the #SOTNundress game last night? I mean, they've already stripped him of his power so he may as well have got neked”.
“Say what you will, but largely cos of @GarethCliff and #SOTNundress, more youngsters are watching #SONA - simple as that”.
“It's been an hour now... Admit that if you weren't stripping you'd have stopped watching long ago #SOTNundress”.
“How many other presidents can say that with his one word, half the citizens took their clothes off? #SOTNundress”.
In his blog post about the game, Cliff declared: “We'll make politics sexy even if we have to take it off.” According to Cliff, the SONA drinking game last year was “the largest Twitter event in SA”.
“All across the country, people who would never watch the SOTN, found themselves paying attention, and in some cases getting their Phuza Thursday off to an early start,” says Cliff, who adds that an estimated 400 000 people took part.
Zuma appealed for South Africans to contribute to the SOTN address via the social networks prior to the event, but many were disappointed when the online submissions failed to get any mention in the president's speech. Last year, Zuma specifically referred to submissions from Facebook and Twitter.
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