First Lady Zanele Mbeki said on Saturday her right to privacy was violated after the Democratic Alliance (DA) hauled journalists to her and President Thabo Mbeki’s retirement home in Riviera, Johannesburg, on suspicion that the government funded it.
She said in a statement that her privacy as a citizen was violated after ”a leader of the DA, with journalists in tow”, inspected her personal property ”in a childish but deeply hurtful spectacle”.
The DA expressed outrage on Thursday at reports that the government was footing a R22-million bill for the house. Mbeki said nobody from the DA or the media asked her permission to visit the property, get details of it from the contractors or splash the details in the media.
”In this regard, I will be seeking legal advice to establish whether the Constitution and our laws do not provide me with any recourse in circumstances such as these when, in my view, my rights as a private citizen are violated by the media and a political party seeking cheap publicity.”
African National Congress (ANC) spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said the home was a private residence and the state was not paying for its construction. He denied the reported cost of R22-million.
He said the DA publicised the home as part of a smear campaign against the ANC.
DA chief whip Douglas Gibson said: ”If President Mbeki is paying this out of his own pocket … there might be some eyebrows raised about where he got so much money, but it’s his own business.”
The Department of Public Works confirmed that it will be supplying security to the family, as it is required to provide appropriate security infrastructure in the official and private residences of serving and former presidents and deputy presidents.
Departmental spokesperson Lucky Mochalibane said the matter is being ”blown out of proportion”.
Gibson said if public money is being used for anything other than the security arrangements, the public have a right to know the details.
Reporters descended on the house in a panhandle in North Close, Riviera — adjoining Houghton Estate — on Friday morning, at the invitation of the DA. They were all refused entry by security guards.
The contractor described the house as ”mediocre” by the opulent standards of the swish Johannesburg suburb.
The finishes are good, the quality is good, but it is ”very modest”, said Motheo Group construction director Gavin Munro. ”Mrs Mbeki is a very modest person.”
Munro told reporters the company has one R7,9-million contract with a Miss Dlamini, ”who is also known as Mrs Mbeki”. This does not include the cost of the land, but includes the cost of demolishing the existing house and rebuilding. He would not say how much the Department of Public Works is paying for security at the house, but said this is a small proportion of the contract.
The house is expected to be completed this month.
The Saturday Star reported that Motheo Construction was founded in 1994 by current chairperson and executive director Thandi Ndlovu, a friend of former housing minister and ANC deputy general secretary Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele.
In 1997, Motheo was involved in a massive housing scandal over the awarding of a R190-million low-cost housing contract to it. — Sapa