Durban - The “sad” part about the Nkandla upgrades is that the project could have cost R60 million, says the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which has all but vindicated President Jacob Zuma of any wrongdoing.
The SIU’s final report has been criticised by opposition parties for absolving Zuma, while fingering more than 10 current and former state employees for criminal conduct.
The report is the last of the Nkandla-related reports and follows those by the joint standing committee on intelligence and the Public Works task team reports, which also placed most of the blame on state officials.
The SIU report, submitted to Parliament on Friday, also wants Zuma’s architect, Minenhle Makhanya, to foot the R155m bill for the escalating costs.
“The sad result is that a project that could have been undertaken at a cost of some R60.6 million ended up costing about R216 million.
The SIU is trying to recover more than R155m from Makhanya, the “principal agent’’ who is alleged to be responsible for the inflated costs of the upgrades.
Makhanya’s legal team is to make an application at the Pietermaritzburg High Court to have the contractors and consultants involved in the project joined as co-defendants to answer allegations against them in the SIU’s court application.
“This (R155m) is by any standard a large some of money. The public concern is accordingly understandable.
“In fulfilling its mandate, the SIU is deeply conscious of the fact that there appears to be general consensus that the losses were the result of serious maladaministration and/ or malpractices,” states the report.
The SIU says it is of the view that accounting officers and a number of employees in the Department of Public Works – who include former directors-general Solomon Malebye, Sam Vukela and Siviwe Dongwana – are guilty of various acts of misconduct.
“In brief, as a result of those inquiries the SIU is of the view that a number of employees of the DPW are guilty of various acts of misconduct; some of the more senior DPW officials who are no longer in its employ are guilty of financial misconduct, which is a criminal offence in terms of the Public Finance Management Act and the (department) has suffered damages or losses amounting to R155 324 516 as a result of unlawful, wrongful and/or negligent conduct and actions of Makhanya which the SIU is entitled to recover from him,” says the SIU.
DA parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane said the party was “concerned” that the SIU investigation commissioned by Zuma appears to “lay blame with the architect”, Makhanya.
“While Mr Makhanya may be liable for inflating certain costs, the Public Protector’s ‘Secure in Comfort’ report cannot be ignored in favour of the SIU’s report.
“The Public Protector found that President Zuma improperly and unduly benefited from the Nkandla upgrades and ordered him personally to pay “a reasonable percentage of the cost”,” said Maimane.
Remedial action was only “capable of being varied” by a review application in court.
The Mercury