Zuma’s fabulous Dubai mansion a fabrication – Presidency

THE PRESIDENCY has denied media reports that President Jacob Zuma “owns a palace” in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

“The story that President Jacob Zuma owns a ‘palace’ in Dubai is a fabrication,” Zuma’s spokesperson Bongani Ngqulunga said in a statement.

Zuma did not own any property outside South Africa and had not “requested anybody to buy property for him abroad”. Zuma had also not received or seen the reported e-mails and had no knowledge of them, Ngqulunga said.

Earlier, the media reported that Zuma’s friends – the wealthy and politically connected Gupta family – had bought him a luxurious Dubai mansion.

“And his close neighbour in the exclusive gated estate is none other than Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe. Zuma’s home is Villa L35 on Lailak Street in Emirates Hills, billed as the ‘most expensive postal code’ in a city so flashy that the police drive Bugattis,” the newspaper has reported.

The palatial home came with 10 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, a double grand staircase, nine reception rooms and space for 11 cars. The top-of-the-range fittings featured an excess of marble, mosaic and gold.

“In a Sunday Times investigative trip to Dubai last year, several independent sources told the newspaper the Guptas had bought Zuma a R330 million retirement home in the upmarket suburb of Emirates Hills in 2015, the same year that Duduzane Zuma (Zuma’s son) bought an apartment for R18m in the Burj Khalifa.”

The sources included businessmen with companies or homes in Dubai, senior ANC officials and people close to the Zuma family, the media reported.

“At the time, however, the Sunday Times could only confirm that the Guptas had bought the house and that Duduzane had bought the Burj Khalifa apartment. The fact that the house was for Zuma has now apparently been confirmed in the leaked MONDAY JUNE 05 2017 Gupta e-mails.”

Last week, it was reported on two draft letters Tony (Rajesh) Gupta first circulated to Sahara chief executive Ashu Chawla and then to Zuma’s son Duduzane, which appeared to suggest Zuma was planning to relocate to Dubai. Both were addressed to His Highness Vice-President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and appeared to be drafts prepared for Zuma’s signature and bearing his name. –ANA