‘Fire pool’ at Nkandla put to test
DURING the latest visit by the media to President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead yesterday, emergency service workers were called in to show how the controversial “fire pool” would be used if there was a blaze at the complex.
The fire pool, which looks like a swimming pool, is built on a side of the homestead but is not maintained.
The Presidency organised firefighters from Richards Bay to come and demonstrate how the pool could be used as a source of water in case of a fire.
General Mondli Zuma, head of special projects, said the firefighters had come with their own fire engine and other equipment because the ongoing investigations into Nkandla had halted all the work that was being done.
“Whether you call it a fire pool or swimming pool what is important is [that] there is water [to fight fires],” he said
Mondli Zuma also said the homestead’s chicken pen and animal kraal had been built at the request of government, but at the moment the chickens were allowed to roam as security monitors had not yet been installed.
Other shortcomings noted by the media included that:
ý The walls of most houses on the property are cracking and in need of painting; ý Weeds are sticking through paving; ý A police unit room, which is supposed to have surveillance cameras to monitor movement inside and outside the homestead, is dysfunctional.
Mondli Zuma defended the president, saying it was the police who had requested the construction of the control room and a garage for armoured cars.
He said a visitors’ room was built because Zuma could not meet heads of state in his house undisturbed as there were children at his main home.