The “exclusive” footage by SABC, South Africa’s state broadcaster, was rich in content as the country’s top leaders chuckled to the background of clicking and flashing cameras.

There was President Jacob Zuma, his shirt undone at the neck, looking relaxed and carefree. His deputy in the ruling African National Congress, Cyril Ramaphosa, appeared equally jovial and casual.

But there was one major problem – the centrepiece of the clip, Nelson Mandela, looked anything but happy. Rather, the revered former liberation leader and South Africa’s first black president stared vacantly into the distance, frail and apparently unaware of the commotion around him.

The result was the unseemly spectacle of a bunch of politicians parading themselves around an old man lauded as a national treasure, causing a storm of outrage to erupt on social media.

Mandela survived 27 years in prison only to become a prisoner of the ANC marketing machine.

April 30, 2013 12:06 pm via TweetCaster for AndroidReplyRetweetFavorite

@Trevornoah

Trevor Noah

What the #ANC did, smiling&posing with an evidently ill #Mandela is sick. That is not how we want to remember him. They had no right!

April 30, 2013 7:49 pm via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite

@amandathandile

Mfengu Queen

In response to the backlash, the ANC felt the need to explain itself in a statement the following day. Read more