'Can we expect something big to happen in the next few days?" a South African journalist asked. Her question was met with confused silence, so she ploughed on.
"Could there be a big scandal breaking, or maybe an unexpected result in the elections due to some interference?"
The editor of a digital civil rights platform, who was addressing a group of foreign journalists about the influence of social media on the German elections, looked bemused.
Nothing of the sort would happen, he said. If there were to be any interference or a sudden propaganda onslaught, as the Russians had so skilfully executed before the US polls, the German electorate had its eyes and ears open.
The South African journalist looked unconvinced.
The run-up to today's German parliamentary elections had been utterly uneventful - no major scandals, no dirty tactics, and perhaps most important, no risk of a warmongering, bigoted ignoramus taking power.Like the US, Britain and France, Germany had also been afflicted with a rising right-wing backlash against the establishment. But the threat of the ultranationalist Alternative for Germany, which appeals to racist, xenophobic and Islamophobic sentiment, appeared to have been tempered since the height of the migration crisis last year.
Angela Merkel was coasting her way to a fourth term as German chancellor with her Christian Democratic Union set to be the lead partner in another coalition government. She would remain the reluctant leader of the free world.
The South African journalist was asking about a possible election upset in Germany because of the bewildering outcomes of the US election and the Brexit referendum in the UK.
But Germany's lack of political drama seemed implausible, too, when global news was surpassing anything Hollywood could produce.
While there has been a discernible shift to the right due to the impact of the refugee crisis in Germany, election contestation has been measured and rational. The second-biggest party, the Social Democrats, has been part of Germany's grand coalition government, thus limiting its ability to convincingly attack the policies and track record of the CDU.As we sat in a Berlin hotel listening to how fake news and social media bots were failing to have an impact on voting patterns, news alerts from South Africa flashed on our phones.
The Gupta family, which spawned multiple bot armies to manipulate our national discourse, had failed to stop the Bank of Baroda closing their accounts, Makhosi Khoza had resigned from the ANC and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was sworn in as an MP, meaning it is only a matter of time before President Jacob Zuma reshuffles his cabinet again to include her.
And that was not even an abnormal news day.
South Africa has a high-velocity news cycle and politics is a never-ending spectacle.
The president has wreaked havoc with the economy by firing two finance ministers, being economical with the truth both times about his reasons for doing so. It is still mind-blowing that he executed his March cabinet reshuffle based on a barely comprehensible "intelligence report" - without facing any consequences.
The new South African pastime is watching political dramas playing out in the courts, with judges and advocates in starring roles. Zuma is engaged in perpetual litigation, either to avoid appearing in the dock or to evade carrying out his presidential duties...