Who was Zuma working for? Plus 5 highlights from 'Vrye Weekblad'

In his book, The President's Keepers, Jacques Pauw wrote that former president Jacob Zuma got a salary from a security company for a period during his presidency.

Zuma and his paymaster said it wasn't true.    

This week, the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture heard that Roy Moodley, an ANC heavyweight and owner of Royal Security, paid Zuma R1.6m in total. They put Zuma on the Royal Security payroll and he was paid a monthly “salary” of R64,000 per month from July 2007, advocate Vas Soni, an evidence leader at the commission, told Judge Raymond Zondo. 

After he was sworn in as president, Moodley still paid Zuma for four months.

Zuma thus had two employers: Roy Moodley and the Republic of South Africa. 

In this week's edition of Afrikaans digital weekly Vrye Weekblad we ask who Zuma's real employer was. 

Because while Zuma was “working” for Moodley, Royal Security got contracts worth R471m from the severely corrupt Passenger Rail Agency (Prasa) without really delivering any services. 

It is illegal and unconstitutional for a president to have a second employer and to get a second salary. And, of course, Zuma never declared this second income. 

The payments were picked up by a Sars official in Durban who did a routine audit of Royal Security and flagged a payment to “JG Zuma” because no tax was paid on it. He suspected it was the president and referred the matter to head office. 

Royal Security put the blame on an official who “mistakenly” kept on paying Zuma after April 2009, and paid the outstanding tax. Zuma repeated the lie and even offered to repay the salary during his meeting with Sars. 

That was hogwash. He spent the money, most like to pay damages to the mother of his child who was born at about that time. He was clearly hoping to get away with it. 

Read the full article in this week's Vrye Weekblad

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