President sorry for $26M home reno scandal
Ruling party backs Zuma despite order to pay back funds for pool, chicken run
JOHANNESBURG— South African President Jacob Zuma apologized on Friday for a scandal over millions of dollars in state spending on his private residence and said he would abide by a constitutional court ruling that he should pay back some funds.
In a nationally televised address, Zuma said he acted “in good faith” in the long dispute over his Nkandla home, which fuelled concerns about alleged corruption at the highest lev- els of government as well as opposition calls for the president to resign.
“The matter has caused a lot of frustration and confusion for which I apologize on my behalf and on behalf of government,” Zuma said.
Despite the president’s apology, the main opposition party said it would still move to impeach Zuma after South Africa’s top court said he had violated the constitution by not adhering to a state watchdog agency’s recommendations that he should pay back some of the more than $34 million Canadian spent on his compound.
“Jacob Zuma is the cancer at the heart of South African politics,” Mmusi Maimane, leader of the Democratic Alliance party, said.
Maimane said ruling party lawmakers should act against Zuma if their professed respect for the constitution is genuine.
“If you are serious about that, then you can’t have Jacob Zuma,” Maimane said.
While some ruling party members have said, without referring to Zuma’s leadership, that they respect the constitutional court’s judgment, at least one faction, the women’s league of the ANC, said it still supports him.
The women’s league said Zuma earlier offered to pay back some money for home upgrades, though critics described that as a late ploy to avoid the constitutional court hearing.
“Our faith and support for Presi- dent Jacob Zuma remains unshaken,” the women’s league said. Impeachment requires a twothirds majority in a parliament where the ruling African National Congress party has a comfortable majority and has already defeated a no-confidence motion against Zuma this year.
Under the court’s ruling on Thursday, the national treasury must calculate costs of upgrades unrelated to security at Zuma’s home within 60 days and the president must repay that amount within 45 days thereafter. Those upgrades include a swimming pool and a chicken run.
“I wish to emphasize that I never knowingly or deliberately set out to violate the constitution, which is the supreme law of the republic,” Zuma said.
In a separate scandal, Zuma has been accused of allegedly improper links to the Guptas, a wealthy business family whose business associates include Zuma’s son Duduzane.
The president dismissed allegations that the Guptas played a role in selecting some cabinet ministers, but other leaders of the ruling party have harshly criticized the family.