We should expect to be gouged yet again for Nkandla

Watching the ballooning price tag of the taxpayer-funded ''security upgradings'' to President Jacob Zuma's palatial private homestead in Nkandla was akin to watching the spread of algae in the Hartbeespoort Dam - it just keeps growing.

From the initial estimate of R27-million in 2009, the cost had trebled by mid-2010. Money was redirected to Nkandla from projects meant to benefit ordinary citizens, especially the poor. The following year the projected figure for the Nkandla work was R203-million.

By the time Public Protector Thuli Madonsela had completed her investigation, in March this year, R215-million had been spent. The bill for work still to be done was estimated at R36-million.

Madonsela made it clear in her damning report that Zuma and his family had benefited unduly from the state-funded provision of features that had nothing to do with security, such as a swimming pool, chicken coop and cattle kraal. She recommended that he repay some of the outlay to cover such "extras".

The Special Investigating Unit, in its report on the scandal, agreed that Zuma had benefited from the upgradings but maintained that the excess expenditure should be reclaimed from the president's architect, Minenhle Makhanya, who has been slapped with a R155-million lawsuit, which he is vigorously defending.

Yesterday, The Witness newspaper helped put flesh on the bones of accounts of the runaway expenditure, revealing that more than R16-million was spent on landscaping, including the purchase of 12 protected cycads at a cost of R5 500 each, and fully grown trees for R7 500 - to create an eye-pleasing landscape of ''natural veld, enhanced with shrubs and trees''.

It would be a mistake to assume that taxpayers won't have to fork out again for the president's personal accommodation.

The SIU report made it clear that, despite the R246-million bill so far, the security at Nkandla is still not up to scratch.

It will soon be time for us to open our wallets again.