Johannesburg - A 32km-long stretch of single-lane road linking President Jacob Zuma’s hometown of Nkandla and the neighbouring town of Kranskop cost taxpayers a whopping R290 million.
Transport Minister Dipuo Peters revealed this on Tuesday in a written reply to a parliamentary question from the IFP.
She said the P5 road, which passes through Zuma’s private home, was built by the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government.
“The national Department of Transport did not spend any funds for the construction of this road. The provincial Department of Transport spent about R290m for the construction of the specified (Nkandla to Kranskop) road,” Peters said.
This comes as concerns mount over the delays in the implementation of the much-hyped Moloto Rail Corridor, following a bus accident in Kwaggafontein that left 30 people dead last month.
The project, announced by Zuma three years ago, is to link Pretoria, Mpumalanga and Sekhukhune in Limpopo.
The Star’s sister newspaper, The Mercury, reported last year that Nkandla had substantially benefited from R582m in taxpayers’ money for the construction of two tarred roads.
The paper reported that the sprawling village of KwaNxamalala had been given two new road networks. The other road - a 53km stretch linking Nkandla to Eshowe - cost R292m to build.
The network forms parts of a project dubbed the Tale of Four Cities as it also links Ulundi, Empangeni/Richards Bay, Durban and Pietermaritzburg.
The official launch ceremony was held just a stone’s throw from Zuma’s private residence in October last year.
KwaZulu-Natal Transport MEC Willies Mchunu had also opened two pedestrian bridges across the iNsuze and Mposa rivers, linking other villages to schools which are in the greater KwaMxamalala area, at a cost of R4.5m.
The unveiling ceremony was held amid a public outcry over the government’s R206m upgrade at Zuma’s private home.
At the time of the launch, DA MPL and the party’s transport spokesman, Radley Keys, had questioned why Nkandla seemed to be getting a lot of preferential attention.
“There are vast areas of the country that do not even have gravel roads. I said clearly there is an agenda here and it could be that it is because Nkandla is home to the president,” Keys said.
The provincial government has repeatedly denied that the roads construction had anything to do with the security upgrade at Nkandla, which was being undertaken by the national Department of Public Works.
The Star