/ 27 June 2016

Treasury tells Concourt that Zuma must pay back R7.8-million for non-security upgrades to Nkandla homestead

President Jacob Zuma during Cosatu's May Day celebrations.
President Jacob Zuma during Cosatu's May Day celebrations.

On Monday afternoon Eyewitness News (EWN) reported that National Treasury has told the Constitutional Court that it believes the amount of money that President Jacob Zuma should pay back for non-security upgrades to his Nkandla home amounts to just over R7.8-million.

Catch up on the Nkandla story with our timeline.

According to EWN, the Treasury contracted two independent quantity surveying firms to conduct two separate investigations, and that it then moderated the results of those two probes.

The finance ministry said it believed a reasonable percentage of the estimated costs that the president would have to pay personally comes to nearly 88 percent of the non-security upgrades’ total cost.

Read our Nkandla Special Report

The Treasury issued a statement on Monday afternoon saying that its report on Zuma’s Nkandla homestead costs had been submitted to the Constitutional Court.

In March the Concourt ruled that President Jacob Zuma must repay a portion of the money spent on what has become the Big Five items built at Nkandla: the kraal, the chicken run, the amphitheatre, a visitors’ centre and the infamous firepool.

The court limited Zuma’s liability for those features, despite acknowledging that his family possibly drew further benefit, and that public protector Thuli Madonsela had in mind spending beyond the Big Five. Madonsela, the court said, had originally thought that the minister of police should help Zuma “determine what other non-security features could be added to the list of five”.

In her report, Madonsela focused on the Big Five, but also noted the private medical clinic built on the grounds, and the costly paving and landscaping.