PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma and his family unduly benefited from the upgrades made to his private Nkandla home by an estimated R246 million, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has found. President Jacob Zuma gave the nod for all upgrades at his Nkandla home, the Public Protector Thuli Madonselas report into the matter revealed on Wednesday. It is my considered view that the president tacitly accepted the implementation of all measures at his residence and has unduly benefited from the enormous capital investment, the report read. A reasonable part of the expenditure towards the installations that were not identified as security measures in the list compiled by security experts... should be borne by he and his family. In her report, Madonsela said installations such as the visitors centre, cattle kraal, chicken run, swimming pool and the amphitheatre at the Nkandla homestead could not be consciously accepted as security measures. Nkandla has been at the centre of controversy after it emerged that the public works department had approved upgrades to the KwaZulu- Natal homestead costing over R206 million. Madonsela has been criticised by the African National Congress for her handling of the probe. ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe has said that the release of the report close to May 7 would indicate an intention to muddy the waters in the election campaign. Madonsela previously dismissed claims that her office would time the release of her final report with the aim of influencing the elections. On Sunday, Mantashe said the party did not have any expectations from the Nkandla report. He called it a political report, saying the ANC would treat it that way. In an ENCA interview in February, Zuma disputed that more than R206m had been spent, saying the security upgrades cost around R50m. Zuma also told the news channel that he would not resign. In November, Zuma told Parliament his residence in Nkandla was paid for by the Zuma family. I took the decision to expand my home and I built my home with more rondavels, more than once. And I fenced my home. And I engaged the bank and Im still paying a bond on my first phase of my home, he said at the time. My residence in Nkandla has been paid for by the Zuma family. All the buildings and every room we use in that residence, was built by ourselves as family and not by government. Zuma told Parliament he took exception to accusations that government money was spent for his benefit.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 12:59:41 +0000
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