The Sunday Times in South Africa quotes advocate Wim Trengove, who represented the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in the case as saying Zuma would only be expected to pay “to the extent to which he had been enriched… (by the building at Nkandla). He shouldn’t pay for the wasteful expenditure incurred by the state, because it is not his fault.”
It’s a unfortunate fact that the bulk of the R246 million spend while expanding the Zuma compound was the result of wasteful expenditure. Zuma did not personally benefit from the non-security upgrades and money wasted, which means his enrichment was much lower than the amount of tax money spent on the entire exercise.
The newspaper report follows the Constitutional Court ruling in March this year (2016) that Zuma failed to comply with the Public Protector’s prescribed remedial action on Nkandla. Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng rule that the Public Protector’s report, which required Zuma to pay for non-security upgrades to his private home, was binding.
He said the National Assembly must determine “the reasonable costs that Zuma must pay for the upgrades”. Some of the non-security upgrades included a swimming pool, amphitheatre, chicken run, and cattle kraal. Despite this, it seems Zuma will only pay around R1 million.
