PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki is to spend R5-million upgrading his official mansion in Pretoria, public works officials said on Sunday. The upgrade includes installing a sauna in the bathroom, remaking the kitchen, constructing patios on two wings and general redecorating “to restore the house to its original condition,” public works regional manager Bongani Khonjwayo told the Sunday Times. The mansion, Mahlambandlovu, was occupied by Nelson Mandela while he was president from 1994 until he retired in June, and before him by former apartheid presidents PW Botha and FW de Klerk. Khonjwani said the building requires R10-million to “bring it back to a house fit for the president of the country.” But because of a “chronic shortage of funds, the department can only concentrate on very critical and urgent areas in renovating the building.”