Johannesburg - The man who investigated paralympian Oscar Pistorius for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp will be heading up the investigation into the security upgrades at President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead.
“Yes he will. Lt-Gen Vinesh Moonoo is the head of detectives and all the investigations fall under him,” police spokesman Lt-Gen Solomon Makgale said on Tuesday.
“All the cases (opened over Nkandla) are being brought together at head office under General Moonoo. He will work with teams of people from our head office.”
On Monday, police announced that corruption charges laid against Zuma by opposition parties over the R246 million so-called security upgrades at Zuma's private Nkandla homestead in rural KwaZulu-Natal would be centralised and investigated nationally.
At the time, Makgale said cases were opened by different parties at many police stations.
Makgale would not elaborate on details of the investigation but suggested police had not brought official charges against Zuma.
“We are not even talking charges as yet,” said Makgale on Monday. “Remember, all the political parties, they went into the charge offices and said they wanted us to investigate corruption. They handed the public protector's report to the charge office.”
In Durban, police minister Nkosinathi Nhleko said there was nothing extraordinary about the investigation and police had to follow up on complaints.
“That's the ordinary sort of standard procedure on the side of the police,” he said.
“If you walk into a police station and you open up a case, on the side of the police all we do is to follow up on the complaint in question.”
Nhleko was responding to media queries after he opened a conference of the Civilian Secretariat for Police in the coastal city.
Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane laid several charges against Zuma in March at the Nkandla police station relating to the upgrades of his homestead.
In a written reply to a parliamentary question by Maimane on Friday, Nhleko said the investigation was under way but declined to give further information.
“The investigation in this regard has been initiated and no further information can be disclosed at this juncture as the matter is still sub judice,” said Nhleko in the reply.
“Suffice to say that all processes have been followed.”
Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema also laid charges against Zuma in March. The charges included fraud, corruption, theft of public money, and racketeering.
It was opened at the Sunnyside police station in Pretoria. Malema told reporters that Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's findings were so serious that it warranted a full criminal investigation.
In her report, Madonsela found Zuma “unduly benefited from the enormous capital investment” in the Nkandla upgrades, and ordered that he reimburse the state for private luxuries that were added to his home as part of the project.
But this was rejected by Parliament's ad hoc committee mulling the outcome of various investigations into Nkandla when it discussed its draft report to the National Assembly last week.
The committee, which consists only of ANC members after Maimane and Malema led an opposition walkout in September, found that there was no proof that Zuma had been enriched or had acted improperly.
Maimane has dismissed the draft report as a whitewash and said the DA would go to court if necessary to force Zuma to refund the state. - Sapa