President Jacob Zuma misled South Africa by claiming that he had done nothing wrong regarding the Nkandla upgrades, the DA said.
Zuma defended the upgrades in an SABC interview, despite Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s report calling on him to pay back a portion of the cost of the upgrades.
According to the DA’s Mmusi Maimane, Zuma was in “dereliction of his duties to protect the public purse and the interests of the state” by claiming he had done nothing wrong.
“It appears that the President has not read the Public Protector report, which explicitly states that he unduly benefited from the non-security upgrades at his ostentatious KwaZulu Natal home. The Public Protector report further states that President Zuma must pay ‘a reasonable percentage of the cost’, which to date he has not done,” Maimane continued.
Maimane also said Zuma was implicated in the scandal due to him directly appointing a contractor and “tacitly” accepting the non-security upgrades.
“The only reports to clear the President of wrongdoing are those compiled by the Special Investigating Unit, the Interministerial Task Team, which both report to the President, and the whitewash report of the ANC-only Nkandla Ad Hoc Committee.”
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