President Jacob Zuma’s legal fees totalled R9,6-million in the 2008/09 financial year, the Star newspaper reported on Thursday.
This is according to information provided by the Presidency to Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa).
About R10,1-million was spent on legal fees in the Presidency, of which R9,6-million was for Zuma’s fees.
This is a R4,6-million increase from the R5-million figure that Presidency chief operations officer Jessie Duarte gave Scopa a week ago, reported the paper.
Committee chairperson Themba Godi said he would write a letter to the Presidency to ask them to clarify.
The Presidency’s chief financial officer, Bahumi Matebisi, said on March 23 she could not give a breakdown of how the money had been spent. It is believed to have paid for the lawyers who acted for Zuma while he battled fraud and corruption charges.
“I don’t have the reconciliation for the total amount,” she said.
Charges against Zuma relating in part to the country’s multibillion-rand arms deal were reinstated in December 2007 and dropped on the eve of the April 2009 elections, paving the way for him to become president. – Sapa