The African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal is calling on party members to mobilise and help President Jacob Zuma repay some of the money spent on non-security upgrades to his Nkandla home.
Yesterday, Treasury recommended that Zuma repay just over R7.8 million. However, the figure must first be rubber-stamped by the Constitutional Court.
Earlier this year the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust, comprising some of the country’s leading businessmen, was established to help the president pay for the upgrades.
Just two months ago Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza hinted that ANC members may help Zuma pay back the money.
Now the ANC in the province is encouraging those who have means to support the president to do so.
Provincial spokesperson Mdumiseni Ntuli says, “We support each other in the movement when it’s nice and when it’s difficult. We can’t say because this is a matter which is the result of a court decision that therefore supporting the president is something we’re going to be ashamed of.”
Yesterday the ANC provincial executive committee met.
But Ntuli couldn’t say if the provincial party would dispatch funds to help the president.
At the same time, the Presidency has warned the public to beware of scams on social media asking people to deposit money into bank accounts to help Zuma pay for non-security upgrades to his Nkandla home.
WHY R7.87 MILLION?
Treasury says it contracted two independent quantity surveying firms to conduct two separate investigations, and that it then moderated the results of those two probes.
In the end, the Finance Ministry says of the five facilities that were in question, a reasonable percentage of the estimated costs that the president would have to pay personally comes to nearly 88% of their total cost.
This corresponds to a final figure of R7,814,105 in 2009 prices.
National Treasury released the figure just a day short of the June 28 deadline set in the Constitutional Court ruling in March this year.
The court found that President Zuma failed to uphold, defend and respect the Constitution as the supreme law of the land in handling the Nkandla debacle.
COSATU PRESIDENT READY TO MOVE ON
Meanwhile, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president S’dumo Dlamini says the issue of Nkandla has not only hurt the ANC but society at large.
Dlamini hopes Treasury’s determination of the amount Zuma should pay back will be the beginning of healing.
“People have been calling for that payment to happen and it has now been decided. I hope it settles the matter.”
He says the president must now pay back the money so that everyone can move on.
