Who's laughing now, JZ?

28 June 2016 - 09:05 By OLEBOGENG MOLATLHWA

The public might have had the last laugh after President Jacob Zuma was yesterday ordered to pay back R7.8-million for the non-security upgrades to his private home in Nkandla.For years Zuma laughed off and castigated anyone who suggested that he had a duty to "pay back the money".But yesterday the Treasury declared that the president should pay back R7.8-million. Had the Treasury relied on the current value of the rand, Zuma would have had to pay back R10.3-million for the visitor centre, amphitheatre, swimming pool, cattle kraal and chicken run that were built as part of the more than R245-million worth of alterations and improvements to his KwaZulu-Natal home - all of which were funded by the taxpayer. The Constitutional Court still has to approve the Treasury's calculations of the amount due.If it does so, Zuma will have 45 days to comply with the ruling and cough up.The Economic Freedom Fighters, which took Zuma to court over the issue, said yesterday that the fight was not over.The party said it would still attempt to stop Zuma from speaking in parliament as he had violated the constitution and did not deserve to address the National Assembly. DA leader Mmusi Maimane said paying back the money did not mean the original corruption charges against Zuma had been forgotten."This is not the end of the road for Jacob Zuma and his corrupt cronies. It has only just begun," Maimane said.A COPE statement said that Zuma had managed to get away with "daylight robbery".The party said Zuma would now become the holder of an asset worth "hundreds of millions of rands". The IFP said R7.8-million seemed "somewhat trivial when compared with the overall expenditure incurred at Nkandla".Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, whose report on Nkandla insisted that Zuma owed the state money for the house upgrade, declined to comment yesterday."All I ever wanted was compliance," she said.In March, the Constitutional Court found that Zuma had failed to uphold, protect and defend the constitution when he did not heed the public protector, who in 2014 found that he and his family had unduly benefited from the upgrades.Madonsela ordered Zuma to pay back a portion of the more than R245-million expenditure, but Zuma dodged the issue for two years.Zuma ordered Minister of Police Nathi Nhleko to determine if he was liable to pay for non-security features at his home rather than to determine how much he should pay - with the assistance of the Treasury - as found by Madonsela.Nhleko eventually absolved Zuma of any liability, as did an ad hoc committee that would later be found to have disgraced the national legislature and impugned its own authority.It was an EFF move to approach the Constitutional Court that helped close the chapter on the Nkandla debacle.The matter has divided the ANC, with some in the party saying Zuma's blunder will cost the organisation votes in the coming local government elections in just over a month.The treasury said: "The panel concluded that the reasonable costs for the five items (excluding the lower level of the visitors centre which was used by the SAPS) including VAT amounts to R10337902 at 2016 values, and R7343012 if de-escalated to June 2009 values using Bureau for Economic Research indices."A reasonable percentage of the estimated costs of the five measures that the president would have to pay personally would be 87.94%. This percentage corresponds to R7814155 as at June 2009."The Presidency said last night it was studying the report and would comment in due course ...

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