President Jacob Zuma should pay up or approach the Constitutional Court if he is in doubt over what to do with the public protector's findings on the R246-million upgrades to his Nkandla homestead. This is according to Thuli Madonsela herself, who told the Sunday Times yesterday that Zuma should pay back a portion of the money spent on his private residence despite Police Minister Nathi Nhleko ruling earlier in the week that he did not need to.Madonsela also slammed Nhleko's suggestion of additional upgrades at Nkandla, saying there was "zero justification" for it.Top security industry experts say the taxpayer is likely to pay another R8-million to R10-million for the additional work mooted by Nhleko this week.Nhleko told reporters more money would have to be spent on securing Nkandla because all the investigations into the upgrades had led to "unprecedented exposure of the president's security detail"."The positioning and security-related purpose of some of these features [at Nkandla] have been exposed to the general public as well as to hostile forces that may pose a threat to state security," Nhleko said.Madonsela said that if anyone was to blame for such security details being in the public domain, it was the government. "We were the first to try and contain this thing - the exposure of the president's [security]."She said the government responded with a 1200-page document to the first reports about the security upgrades by the Mail & Guardian's amaBhungane investigative unit.mini_story_image_hleft1"AmaBhungane took that document and put it on the internet - meaning anyone from China to Venezuela knows [the Nkandla security features]. It has details. It has the dimensions of things and drawings and everything," Madonsela said.She said there was, therefore, "zero justification" for Nhleko's planned fresh security upgrades.Madonsela criticised Nhleko's report on Nkandla and said it was not the minister's role to decide whether Zuma should pay or not because she had already made that determination in her own report."I don't think we should reinvent the wheel and decide whether the president should pay or not pay. That decision has already been made. The issue now is how much and when," she said.If Zuma was not sure whether her findings were binding, he should approach the Constitutional Court."I am suggesting that the president should ... approach the Constitutional Court to ask the court to assist him because the president is the head of the executive."He needs to be assisted by a court to indicate what relationship should he have with us as an agency ... and what would be the status of our report. The court might agree with me ... It might agree with him, or it might come with something in between," she said.The public protector also suggested that her Nkandla report had been lenient to Zuma when it found that he and his family "unduly benefited" from some of the upgrades. She said she could have gone a step further by saying they had "unlawfully benefited"."Incidentally, the language I used was softer than the language in the act. I said he benefited unduly."In the [Executive Members Ethics] Act the language says 'unlawful enrichment' and 'improper enrichment'," she said.story_article_right1Nhleko's report has caused an outcry across the country with opposition parties insisting that Zuma should pay.Former Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, who labelled the report as laughable, called on citizens to march to the Union Buildings against the decision to shield Zuma from paying. However, Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini welcomed Nhleko's report and called on government to take action against those involved in inflating prices - including government officials and private service providers.The security features photographed and described in Nhleko's report and press conference include the perimeter fencing, the cattle culvert, the security cameras, the security lighting, the visitors' centre and the guardhouses.Security industry sources put the going rate of the security assessment envisioned by Nhleko at R500000 if undertaken by an internationally qualified security expert.Protecting the culvert should cost around R350000. If the guardhouses were to be relocated, providing every guardhouse with the appropriate facilities, such as bulletproof glass, auxiliary power, backup breathing systems and reliable communications would probably cost between R1.5-million and R2-million.Much detailed information and footage was provided in the report and videos about the perimeter fencing. The sources said that were it to be changed, one should expect to pay about R2500 a metre for an electrified perimeter fence enhanced with technology such as thermal cameras and video analytics.Based on the lease agreement from the Ingonyama Trust, the extent of the Zuma property is about 8.9ha. The Department of Public Works also leases the adjacent 6.6ha property.Assuming, for a conservative estimate, that the shape is a square, the circumference of the estate would be about 1600m.This would work out to a cost of R4-million, which would include thermal cameras.Upgrading the visitors' centre to the envisaged security standard was estimated by experts as likely to cost about R2-million.One expert cautioned that security was much more than just the application of technology, and in the long run the costs associated with the operational aspects - such as personnel, logistics and processes - of providing security were likely to far outstrip the initial capital expense.Questioned about when the additions or changes to the security systems would be made, Nhleko's spokesman, Musa Zondi, said Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi had indicated that everything had been halted to allow all processes, including disciplinary procedures, to be completed.The Sunday Times put the security expert's price estimates to Zondi, who said: "If and when the time comes, Public Works would be best suited to answer those questions."..