Johannesburg - The Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation commended Public Protector Thuli Madonsela on Thursday for her courage in reporting on President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla home.
“The suggestion by the ruling party (the African National Congress) and its allies that the timing of the release of the report was a political ploy by the public protector to influence the looming general election is a scandalous nonsense,” the foundation said in a statement.
“The truth is that had the public protector deliberately withheld information about Nkandla she would have been guilty of a fatal bias in favour of the ruling party.”
The foundation said it hoped South Africans would respond appropriately to Madonsela's report.
Madonsela released her report on costly security upgrades at Zuma's private Nkandla homestead in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday.
She found that Zuma and his family had unduly benefited from upgrades and recommended that the president pay back a percentage of the costs for non-security upgrades.
Madonsela said Zuma should have asked questions about the scale, costs, and affordability of security upgrades which could end up being as much as R240 million.
Sapa