The National Treasury said on Monday it has determined that President Jacob Zuma needs to reimburse the state R7.8 million for improvements to his private home at Nkandla and submitted a report to that effect to the Constitutional Court.
The court had given Treasury 60 days to determine how much the president needed to pay out of his pocket for luxuries included in the security upgrade of his rural home.
Treasury said after evaluating the upgrading costs, it calculated an amount of R7.8 million to be paid back by Zuma.
"As a consequence, the reasonable percentage of the estimated costs of the five measures that the president would have to pay personally would be 87,94 percent. This percentage corresponds to R7,814 155 as at June 2009."
The court had ruled unanimously that Zuma had 105 days to pay back a percentage of the money spent on non-security upgrades at his private residence. Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng ruled that Zuma and the National Assembly had flouted the constitution, and that the latter failed to hold Zuma to account. The ruling further affirmed that directives issued by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela were binding.
Zuma was ordered to personally pay the costs for the construction of non-security related structures namely a visitor’s centre‚ amphitheatre‚ cattle kraal‚ chicken run and swimming pool.
The court ordered that Zuma make payment of the determined amount within 45 days.
Madonsela had found that Zuma had derived undue benefit from the project and should refund the State a reasonable percentage.
– African News Agency (ANA)
