Johannesburg - Public Protector Thuli Madonsela is recommending that President Jacob Zuma repay the publicly funded “security upgrade” to his private home, which included a swimming pool and marquee area, the Mail & Guardian reported on Friday.
The newspaper said that the Public Protector's provisional report, entitled “Opulence on a Grand Scale”, found Zuma had derived “substantial” personal gain from the home improvements paid for by the state.
Zuma's spokesman declined to comment on the newspaper report. No one was immediately available to comment from the office of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.
The leaked findings of an investigation by the official anti-corruption watchdog into Zuma's Nkandla residence could be damaging to Zuma and the African National Congress six months before an election.
The newspaper said the improvements made to Zuma's home included a visitors' lounge, amphitheatre, cattle enclosure and swimming pool, referred to in Public Works documents as a “fire pool” on the pretext it could double up as a water reservoir for firefighting purposes.
Madonsela's report accused Zuma of violating two executive ethics codes - failing to protect state resources and misleading Parliament, the report said.
Zuma told Parliament last year that all the buildings in the sprawling compound in rural KwaZulu-Natal had been built “by ourselves as family, and not by the government”.
The report also found some of the more legitimate security features, such as 20 houses for police protection, a clinic and two helipads, were excessive and should have been placed in a nearby town to benefit the broader community, the paper said.
The paper estimated some of the questionable features of the upgrade at R20 million.
It also said that Zuma ordered his private architect be drafted in as “principal agent” to oversee the upgrade, even though he was not a security expert.
In comparison, the R215 million spent on Zuma's home is in stark contrast to state money spent on improving the security of previous South African presidents, the Mail & Guardian said.
FW de Klerk, South Africa’s last white president who left office in 1994, received R236 000 for upgrades to his house, while R32 million was spent on Nelson Mandela's home. - Reuters