Zuma’s £13m makeover ‘obscene’, says MP

South Africa’s president accused of being ‘opulent’ as ‘security features’ on his estate are scrutinised

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma’s £13million of taxpayer-funded upgrades to his estate have been labelled “obscene” by a politician allowed into the compound.

A group of South African MPs yester- day inspected the controversial private Nkandla country retreat in KwaZulu Natal, 120 miles north of Durban, to confirm a police report that found the improvements to be essential.

The embattled president has had renovations worth £13million carried out on the estate since he was elected president in 2009 – something that has caused outrage across the country.

Mr Zuma claims that the work was carried out without his knowledge, and that the money had been spent on essential security provision for a head of state. His critics insist the money has funded a luxury makeover of the estate. And yesterday MPs arrived at the heavily guarded facilities to investigate.

Mmusi Maimane, the leader of South Africa’s Democratic Alliance opposition party, told The Daily Telegraph: “It sticks out like a sore thumb amid a sea of poverty, this opulent display by the president. It is simply bizarre to claim you need a visitors’ centre for someone’s private residence.

“To me, the clear indication is that we have a president who failed in his executive ethics – but furthermore, he cannot claim he did not know about it.” A police report in May cleared Mr Zuma of any wrongdoing and found that he was not liable for any costs for “non-security” features. Nathi Nhleko, the police minister, said the swimming pool‚ amphitheatre‚ kraal‚ chicken run and visitors’ centre were security features.

He showed videos including a demonstration of how a firepool [a swimming pool that doubles as a reservoir for fighting fires] worked.

The police minister said an expert had agreed the pool was “the best water source available on site to replenish the fire engine” in the event of a fire. An amphitheatre was, he said, necessary to prevent soil erosion by vehicles including fire engines and armoured police vehicles using the adjoining road.

It also served as an assembly point for Mr Zuma’s large family in the event of an emergency.

But Mr Maimane said: “It cannot be justified as security by any stretch of the imagination. The swimming pool was an ordinary swimming pool.

“We all know what security looks like in this country and that wasn’t it. It was obscene.” The MPs toured the 21 houses that were used by his security guards, where the staff were sleeping on mattresses on the floor.

Mr Zuma said that the properties cost £310,000, a figure greeted with astonishment.

The money spent on Mr Zuma’s home is in stark contrast to the security of previous South African presidents.

FW de Klerk, the country’s last white president who left office in 1994, got £12,200 for upgrades and £1.65million was spent on Nelson Mandela’s home.

Mr Maimane said the visit had only strengthened his resolve to hold the president to account.