Treasury determination on Nkandla only the beginning, says DA

27 June 2016 - 19:23 By Ernest Mabuza

The Democratic Alliance said the National Treasury’s determination that President Jacob Zuma must personally pay back R7.8 million for the benefit he unduly accrued via non-security upgrades to his Nkandla homestead was only the beginning. “This is not the end of the road for Jacob Zuma and his corrupt cronies; it has only just begun.“We cannot forget that more than R250 million of public money was wasted at Nkandla‚" DA leader Mmusi Maimane said in a statement.He said the figure of R7.8 million amounted to just over 3% of the total spent on Nkandla. "Zuma and his cronies still owe the South African people hundreds of millions of rand‚” Maimane stated.He said while the DA awaited the court’s determination on the report sent by National Treasury‚ it would not relent in ensuring that all of those who were complicit in the Nkandla corruption were brought to book so that every cent unduly spent could be retrieved. “The DA will be pursuing a civil claim against Mr Minenhle Makhanya‚ the chief Nkandla architect‚ who ought to pay back the more than R155 million used to inflate the cost of the ‘security upgrades’ at Nkandla - which the Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU) 2014 report found him to be responsible for.”Maimane said he was also of the opinion that there was a criminal case to be answered by Zuma‚ as well as his cabinet ministers who were involved in this matter. “I have already laid eight charges of corruption against President Zuma for his complicity in the misappropriation of public funds at Nkandla in terms of the Prevention and Combatting of Corrupt Activities Act 2004. “In her report titled Secure in Comfort in 2014‚ Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found that Zuma and his family improperly benefited from the measures implemented in the name of security which included non-security comforts as his Nkandla house.These included the visitors’ centre‚ swimming pool‚ amphitheatre‚ cattle kraal with culvert and chicken run.She directed that Zuma‚ assisted by certain State functionaries‚ should work out and pay a portion fairly proportionate to the undue benefit that had accrued to him and his family.For more than a year‚ Zuma did not act on Madonsela’s remedial action.This prompted the Economic Freedom Fighters and the Democratic Alliance to launch applications to the Constitutional Court to force the president to comply with the remedial action.In March‚ the court declared that the failure by the President to comply with the remedial action taken against him‚ by the Public Protector‚ was inconsistent with the Constitution and invalid.It also ordered the National Treasury to determine the reasonable costs of those measures implemented by the Department of Public Works at the President’s Nkandla homestead that do not relate to security.TMG Digital..

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