Johannesburg - A South African bank that provided President Jacob Zuma with a mortgage to settle a Constitutional Court order to repay taxpayers the money spent upgrading his private residence said it sticks to loan processes no matter who the client is.
“In granting a loan, the usual processes and conditions apply no matter who the client may be,” VBS Mutual Bank Chief Executive Officer Andile Ramavhunga said in an emailed statement on Wednesday, without referring to Zuma.
“The mortgage bond amount applied for cannot exceed the market value of the property. Furthermore, the applicant must have a proven source of income to service the required installment repayments, which cannot exceed 30 percent of the gross income of the applicant.”
The Johannesburg-based lender won’t release details of clients, Ramavhunga said.
While Dyambeu Investments is a significant shareholder, it has no direct involvement in the day-to-day running of the bank, Ramavhunga said.
Zuma, 74, got a R7.8 million mortgage to pay for non-security-related features, including a swimming pool, amphitheatre, a chicken run and cattle enclosure to his Nkandla residence in KwaZulu-Natal.
The nation’s top court ruled in March that Zuma had violated the constitution by not abiding by a graft ombudsman resolution that he should pay some of the more than R200 million spent on the residence.
Dyambeu Investments owns 25.2 percent of VBS Mutual Bank, while the Public Investment Corporation, which oversees South African government workers’ pension funds among the $124 billion in assets it holds, owns 25.3 percent.
BLOOMBERG