Not another cent of taxpayers’ money must be spent at Nkandla, says DA

Not another cent of South African taxpayers’ money must be spent “for the benefit of one man”, Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane said on Sunday.

“It is shameful that a man who has single-handedly plunged our country into ‘junk status’ should live in palace of luxury, built and maintained with the people’s money. If Jacob Zuma wants refurbishments and upgrades he must pay for it out of his own pocket,” Maimane said.

The presidency was quick out of the blocks on Sunday morning to defend Zuma and “muddy the waters” by claiming in a statement that “there are no renovations of the private houses at the president’s residence at Nkandla currently and no government department has indicated any proposal for renovations”, he said.

“This response is simply inadequate. The president must reject any and all future upgrades at Nkandla that uses public money – no matter how they are described or categorised. The South African people cannot be burdened with paying for any more upgrades, refurbishments, or extensions at Zuma’s palace of corruption.

“The DA will continue in our efforts to remove Jacob Zuma from office so that the assault on our country, our Constitution, and the public’s money is stopped, once and for all,” Maimane said.

Earlier on Sunday, the presidency flatly denied media reports of further renovations at taxpayers’ expense to Zuma’s private homestead at Nkandla in rural KwaZulu-Natal.

“The presidency has noted with concern a report in the Sunday Times newspaper about alleged plans by the department of public works to renovate certain aspects of the president’s Nkandla residence,” the presidency said in a statement.

Zuma wished to confirm and emphasise that there were no renovations of the private houses at his residence at Nkandla currently and no government department had indicated any proposal for renovations.

“We also wish to underscore that no government department, including the department of public works, will be permitted to renovate any of the president’s private houses in Nkandla,” the presidency said.

The Sunday Times reported that government was gearing up to lavish more taxpayer funds on Zuma’s controversial Nkandla homestead, which had already been upgraded at a cost to the country of R246 million.

“Undeterred by the public outcry and a finding by the Constitutional Court that Zuma had failed to uphold the Constitution when it came to the money spent on his private home, the department of public works this week confirmed a new round of work was in the offing. It said processes were under way to refurbish the property – in some cases significantly – to repair shoddy workmanship and, once again, to address security concerns,” the newspaper reported.

While the assessment was not complete, the cost of additional upgrades and repairs could run into millions of rand and could even involve rebuilding some of the houses on the property, it said.

Public works chief director for legal services Barnie Ntlou reportedly told the Sunday Times in writing this week that “the process has just started” to have parts of the homestead repaired and that officials had already visited the homestead.

In a series of follow-up phone calls to confirm this, Ntlou reiterated the work would definitely go ahead. “We are forced to do that. We can’t allow a presidential residence to be dilapidated,” he reportedly said.

Asked via SMS whether he had received a briefing about future upgrades to the homestead, newly appointed Police Minister Fikile Mbalula replied: “Yes.” In response to a follow-up question about the nature of the work, Mbalula referred the Sunday Times to the presidency.

Former public protector Thuli Madonsela found in her report on the Nkandla scandal that the questionable publicly funded upgrades to the property included a guesthouse and two private residences, a swimming pool, a visitors centre, a cattle kraal and chicken run, a helipad, and secret tunnels and underground bunkers, the Sunday times reported.

In March 2016, the Constitutional Court ruled that Zuma failed to uphold, defend, and respect the Constitution after ignoring Madonsela’s recommendations that he pay back some of the money spent on upgrading his home. The Treasury set the amount he was liable to pay back at R7.8 million – and the presidency said Zuma took out a loan from VBS Mutual Bank to do so, the newspaper reported.

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