Johannesburg - President Jacob Zuma’s family turned down a group of entrepreneurs who offered to foot part of the R7.8-million Nkandla bill that Zuma announced he had raised through a bank loan this week.
The Presidency announced that Zuma had raised the money to repay the state for non-security upgrades to his Nkandla homestead in KwaZulu-Natal through a home loan from VBS Mutual Bank. The bank offers loans for land owned by traditional authorities.
Robert Ngwenya, the chairperson of Madibeng Entrepreneurs Forum in North West, made Zuma a tempting offer to help raise at least half of the R7.8m costs.
Ngwenya made the offer to Zuma publicly during a political rally in Letlhabile outside Brits in the run-up to local government elections. Zuma, who spoke after Ngwenya at the rally, did not at the time turn down the offer.
But this week, after the announcement that he had repaid the money, Ngwenya said the family had prevented them from assisting with the repayment.
“We were stopped by the family when we began negotiations. They said they wanted to handle the matter as a family and preferred to do this differently,” Ngwenya told The Sunday Independent on Saturday. “They appreciated our offer of assistance but they didn’t want us to get involved. Every man has his own way of doing things. We wanted to help so this matter can be done with.”
Opposition parties and commentators, however, have raised questions on how Zuma obtained the home loan from the bank, and how he would be able to afford the repayment, given his annual salary and his age.
Ngwenya, a property development mogul from Maboloka, outside Brits in North West, praised the president for championing rural development. He said the president’s decision to obtain a loan from the little-known bank was another vote of confidence to black businesses. “This gives us another reason to continue to support him as president, because he has confidence in small black-owned businesses,” said Ngwenya.
“He has done well for SMMEs (small, medium, and micro-sized enterprises) during his presidency. I don’t know what else do people want from this old man. We will be happy to assist him financially in future.”
Public Protector Thuli Madonsela ordered Zuma to reimburse “a reasonable portion” of the money spent on improvements which were not linked to security at his Nkandla homestead.
Zuma, however, disputed the findings, but lost his battle in the country’s highest court.
Ngwenya and his forum were not the first people to offer Zuma help with repaying his Nkandla debt.
In 2014, 33-year-old Vumelani Mchunu gained fame for writing a letter to Parliament’s ad hoc committee offering to “pay back the money” on behalf of Zuma, but that offer, too, never materialised.
Ngwenya said their act of generosity to Zuma was not motivated by politics or a desire to gain any favour from his government.
He said the forum, made up of property developers, taxi owners and spaza shop owners, continued to build houses for the poor, and all its members had contributed towards this.
“The reality is that the president has delivered to SMMEs and, as you know, it’s difficult to reach out to him so we had to grab the opportunity of him coming to Brits,” Ngwenya told Independent Media in July. Ngwenya is a devout supporter of the president and features an image of himself and Zuma on the front page of his business website.
Sunday Independent