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Zuma's R7,8 Million Payment on Nkandla

In 2014, our Public Protector, Miss Thuli Madonsela, found that President Jacob Zuma had unduly benefited from his private home at Nkandla, in her report “Secure in Comfort”.

“It is common cause that in the name of security, government built for the president and his family in his private [home], a visitors centre, cattle kraal and chicken run, swimming pool, and amphitheatre among others,” Madonsela states in her report. At that time, she estimated the total cost of those upgrades to be R246 million.

Very recently, our National Treasury released a report, by order of the Constitutional Court, announcing that Zuma must pay back R7,8 million on the money spent on Nkandla. This occured after parliament first established an ANC-majority committee, which deliberated and eventually claimed that the president had, in fact, not done anything wrong. After said committee's findings were accepted, the Constitutional Court found that the president’s failure to comply with the remedial action was inconsistent with the Constitution (implying that the committee was also unconstitutional) and ordered the National Treasury to determine an appropriate amount to be paid back by Zuma.

However, R7,8 million hardly seems fair, seeing as it is only 3,2% of the costs that Miss Madonsela estimated. 3.2% of the state funds used for Nkandla’s upgrades and therefore funds paid for by taxpayers – the citizens of South Africa. While the ANC government spent R246 million on a luxury home for the president, service delivery has been generally poor across the country – our roads are not well maintained, RDP houses are not being built, many people are without running water or electricity (about 3,4 million households) and, worse still, even more people are living under the breadline (approximately 53,8% of the population).

The Constitutional Court has accepted the National Treasury’s report and Zuma is thus obliged to pay back R7,8 million towards the upgrades made to his home that did not relate to security, including the visitors centre, the amphitheatre, the cattle kraal, the chicken run and the swimming pool (or “fire pool” as it was called in an attempt to legitimise the corrupt project).

When the Constitutional Court ordered the National Treasury to determine a “reasonable” percentage to be paid back by Zuma, it did not provide details as to how the National Treasury should do so. Here is how they reportedly calculated the amount:

  • They first determined how much the non-security upgrades cost, roughly.

  • They then determined how much of the cost Zuma would be liable for, personally.

  • Two firms were contracted to assess the property value, independent of one another.

  • The Department of Public Works provided electronic and hard copies of the construction and engineering drawings of the amphitheatre‚ cattle kraal‚ chicken run‚ visitors centre and swimming pool.

  • Each of the quantity surveying teams, comprising of three experts each, visited the Nkandla homestead independently.

  • A moderating panel was set up to receive the reports by the two firms. The panel was comprised of chief executive officers of the SA Institute of Civil Engineering (SAICE) and Association of SA Quantity Surveyors (ASAQS)‚ specifically two professional engineers and two professional quantity surveyors‚ each of whom had at least 30 years of experience.

  • This panel determined that that the only element of the five components in question that could be considered to be of a security nature was the control centre on the ground floor of the visitors centre.

  • The panel also concluded that the reasonable costs of the five items amounted to R8 884 364 (including VAT) as at June 2009 and R11 753 758 (including VAT) as at May 2016‚ with an accuracy of ± 10%.

  • Treasury accepted the reasonable cost determination from the panel and agreed that the amount that Zuma would have to pay personally would be 87,94%. This percentage corresponds to R7 814 155 as at June 2009.

Although this sounds like a reasonable process (based on the report by Penwell Dlamini for Times Live, entitled “How Treasury arrived at the figure of R7.8 million Zuma must pay for Nkandla”), the question remains: What was the rest of the money for? R246 million minus R8,9 million still leaves a shocking R237,1 million expenditure on the improvements.

Unfortunately, I must say the repayment amount of R7,8 million is probably rather accurate, when considering the actual value of the upgrades. What evidence the public has, alas, suggests that most of the money was spent on tenderpreneurs and patronage, as is custom recently, with very little actually going to the supposed “security upgrades”. We will, however, have to see whether more of this corrupt saga will bubble up to the light of the public eye.

I agree with people all over the country that R7,8 million is a very small percentage for Zuma to pay back – almost insulting to the public he stole from – and I would have liked it to have been significantly more. For that matter, considering all the other scandals that Zuma has been involved in, it should be many times more, since those scandals have cost South Africans millions or even billions to line Zuma's pockets (as an example, consider the luxury cars that Zuma’s wives have been given, paid for from the police’s funds). So, like many of the opposition parties, I feel like this R7,8 million is a slap in the face for South Africans – especially those paying taxes. It is a token, like the half-hearted apology we received as an advance on this money from our dear thief-in-chief.

It is interesting to note that many people even now support Zuma and the African National Congress (ANC) unconditionally. So great was support for this corrupt racket, that scammers estimated that it would be worthwhile to create a fraudulent bank account into which people could pay money to “help the president” pay the R7,8 million. I implore you to think about what this says about South Africans (those still supporting Zuma, specifically) and our communities.

If we let this sort of corruption fester, it will spread. It's already started: parastatals are shedding state bailout funds just as fast as they kick out honest and qualified staff; the NEC dare not say no to Zuma, for fear of losing patronage or succumbing to the wave of internal assassinations in the ANC; violence is becoming day by day a more prominent part of our lives as South Africans. Do we want to live in a dictatorship? That is where we are headed, if the ANC is not stopped, and stopped soon.

By our vote, we can strike a blow to the rotting giant that is herding us towards a life of tyranny and propaganda. Even if you want to vote ANC in 2019, do not vote for them in this municipal election. Be honest with yourself: the ANC needs to mend their ways, and they will not do so unless we cut them off. If they shape up, we can always let them back in. Support democracy; punish corruption.

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