ANC pressure mounts on Jacob Zuma over €18m upgrade to rural home

Internal party pressure is mounting on South Africa's president Jacob Zuma to reimburse the taxpayer for non-security upgrades made to his rural home, after some African National Congress veterans publicly urged him to pay up.

To date the president has steadfastly refused to pay back the money spent on the non-security upgrades to his home in Nkandla in Kwazulu-Natal province. This is despite a recommendation that he should do so made by public protector Thuli Mandonsela, following her investigation into the matter.

Under South African law, the taxpayer should have to cover only the cost of security upgrades made to a president’s private residence. Yet the upgrades to the president’s home paid for by the exchequer – which are said to have cost 246 million rand (€18.15 million) – included a helipad, swimming pool, chicken run, cattle enclosure and amphitheatre.

Mr Zuma claims to have not been involved in the project to upgrade his rural home and as a result he says he is not liable for any of the overspend.

However, opposition parties have agitated in parliament for him to adhere to the public protector’s findings to such a degree in recent months that Mr Zuma has stopped coming before the National Assembly to answer questions, despite being constitutionally obliged to.

In his absence, parliament has descended into chaos on a number of occasions as opposition MPs have challenged the ruling party’s efforts to get its leader off the hook. A group of 20 Economic Freedom Fighter MPs face suspension from parliament for refusing to stop chanting “pay back the money” when Mr Zuma was last in the house.

Police were called into parliament a second time last week after tempers frayed when opposition MPs tried to stall the adoption of a report compiled by a committee comprising ANC members that exonerated their leader.

However yesterday it appeared the patience of some of Mr Zuma's ANC comrades was also wearing thin. The weekly Mail and Guardian newspaper published an article in which senior party veterans called on him to do the honourable thing.

ANC Veterans League president Sandi Sejake, former ANC MP Ben Turok and former home affairs director general Mavuso Msimang all criticised Mr Zuma for his apparent disregard of the public protector's recommendations.

Mr Turok said that whether the president ordered the construction or not, he had benefited, and if one benefited, then they ought to contribute something to the cost. “If somebody builds a swimming pool in my garden, I will know about it . . . I promise you I would say I’m benefiting and I would pay something towards it even if I didn’t order it,” he was quoted by the newspaper. “That’s common sense.”