By Jeremy Michaels and Charles Phahlane
A controversial ANC MP with a long record of wrongdoing was literally caught napping while deputy president Jacob Zuma answered questions about corruption allegations in the National Assembly this week.
The picture of the Honourable Zandisile Ncinane nodding off will no doubt fuel an ongoing debate in the corridors and committees of parliament about whether TV cameras should be allowed to show the public embarrassing images of MPs sleeping during the sometimes boring proceedings in the house.
But Ncinane will not have been able to argue that he was bored - with the controversy around the deputy president, Zuma's Q&A was one of the most lively sessions in the assembly in a long time.
Ncinane will, however, have the support of IFP MP Jeanette Vilakazi, who made it clear during a recent meeting of parliament's joint rules committee that she was in favour of MPs sleeping in the house.
The rules committee is grappling with an appeal by some MPs to stop TV cameras from focusing on sleeping MPs.
"Falling asleep is unintentional," Vilakazi told the meeting, prompting raucous laughter from her colleagues, while others appeared to be too ashamed to lift their heads. Vilakazi suggested MPs were stressed because they worked too hard and were sometimes drowsy from medication.
But the Speaker, Frene Ginwala, warned that if the committee decided to clamp down on the TV images, it would have to do the same with the press.
"Why discriminate against the electronic media?" she asked.
Ncinane is no newcomer to controversy - he was found guilty by a disciplinary committee for abusing his parliamentary travel privileges and severely reprimanded by Ginwala in November 2000.
Ginwala said his conduct was "reprehensible in the extreme".
Having asked Ncinane to stand up during a sitting of the house, Ginwala addressed him directly and said: "I view your deliberate abuse of your travel facilities in a very serious light. Your conduct is reprehensible in the extreme.
"You have abused the public's trust and, in the process, brought parliament into disrepute. I issue a severe reprimand for your inexcusable and reckless conduct."
She ordered that Ncinane repay to parliament the costs for the 10 journeys for which he had used his children's travel vouchers, as well as the difference in respect of the seven other journeys between the money actually paid for the tickets and full fare paid by parliament.
In a brief response, Ncinane acknowledged that his action was "deplorable" and asked for "forgiveness".
The scandal led to Ncinane's membership of the ANC being cancelled in June 2001, but this was suspended for five years.
But he has a long list of transgressions. Later that year, Ncinane was charged with defrauding the Border Rugby Football Union of R33 000 in development funds which he allegedly used to pay for repairs to his personal car.
Ncinane, reportedly a former dipping tank supervisor under the former Ciskei government, challenged senior ANC MP Mluleki George for the BRFU presidency early in 2001, but a senior rugby official urged delegates not to vote for Ncinane saying it would be a disaster and describing him as "a real joke".
Months after beating George to the post, Ncinane was suspended in the wake of the fraud allegations. A year after his air-ticket scandal, Ncinane quit as president of BRFU.
"This is my decision and it has nothing to do with the fraud charges against me and it won't affect my position as an ANC MP," Ncinane was quoted as saying.
In May 1999, Ncinane apologised after he said the ANC would emerge as the ruling party after the June 2 elections "even if Jesus Christ were still on earth" - a statement deplored by his own party for upsetting Christians.
According to a Sunday newspaper, Ncinane was fired by the then Ciskei Agricultural Union in the 1980s after being found guilty of stealing petrol.