Scramble to fix Nkandla fences after exposé

The broken fence at President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla home has been fixed - thanks to the Sunday Times. Until last weekend, no one appeared to know that parts of the R6.2-million outer perimeter fence were falling apart.

On Thursday, the government sent a KwaZulu-Natal North Coast fencing company to repair the damage.

By the time a Sunday Times team arrived at Zuma's homestead on Thursday afternoon, all sections of the broken fence, including the part near one of the guardhouses, had been repaired. The logs used to support the collapsed fence around the security personnel compound had been removed and a new fence installed.

Two trucks belonging to Cornerstone Homes, a KwaDukuza-based company specialising in fencing projects, were parked nearby. When contacted on Friday, the company refused to comment.

Phillip Masilo, legal adviser to Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi, said he did not know whether the fence had been fixed because that was an operational issue and the minister was not in charge of operations.

Public works spokesman Sabelo Mali referred questions to the SAPS, which is responsible for internal security at Nkandla. Police spokesman Solomon Makgale declined to comment.

Zuma's 8.9ha homestead is surrounded by two rings of 3m-high fence - an internal fence that cost R8.2-million and the outer perimeter fence at R6.2-million.

The perimeter fence has a R1.8-million CCTV camera installation and a kinematic fence detection system that cost almost R1-million, bringing costs for the perimeter to about R17-million.

The contract to install the perimeter fence was awarded to Durban businesswoman Thandeka Nene's Bonelela Construction Enterprise and Projects, which secured work worth R98-million on the Nkandla project.

However, Bonelela's contract was cancelled because of nonperformance and the work of installing the outer perimeter security fence was given to another company.

Despite the fences, the Special Investigating Unit has raised concerns about Zuma's safety at Nkandla.

Matter of fact

Last week in "Nkandla falls apart" we incorrectly implied that Betafence Projects erected the outer perimeter fence, which is in a state of disrepair, at President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla residence.

We also failed to ask Betafence for comment. Mike James, general manager of Betafence SA, said that only the inner security - which is in good repair - was erected by his company.

We apologise for these errors.