It was recently announced that President Jacob Zuma must pay back R7.8 million of more than R240 million spent on upgrading his Nkandla homestead. Despite many people feeling that Zuma is getting off easy, our beloved president is, again, reluctant to pay back the money.
The president’s brother, Michael Zuma, says: “The Zumas are not wealthy people. […] If they want him to pay, I do not know where he is going to get the money. He has not spoken to us about this matter and we have only learnt about it in the news.” He continued to say that the Zuma family live the lives of any rural family. And yet, not every rural household is gifted multiple luxury vehicles per wife by the South African Police Service, are they?
According to Michael, the Zuma family is misunderstood, and he claims that the fact that Jacob Zuma is president does not mean that he is wealthy. “We are not a rich family,” states Edward Zuma, the president’s son. “If I had money myself I would pay for him and relieve him. But the family will meet […] and chart the way forward and see if there’s a way to pour in all our resources to help him. […] We are not a rich family, perhaps if we were rich we would also be fighting these things and taking people to court. We are a family of hustlers and hard workers.”
interesting statements after the Nkandla matter had to go to the Constitutional Court, and the Zuma’s corruption charges are being bounced around the courts as well.
Gwede Mantashe, the secretary general of the African National Congress (ANC), has made it clear that the ANC would not be collecting funds to aid Zuma in paying his bill on Nkandla: “The Concourt is quite clear, the ANC cannot pay whatever amount. A structure of the ANC cannot do that because if it’s traced and found to be that, it will be in contempt of court.”
Despite this, ANC Youth League secretary general, Njabulo Nzuza, said the league was willing to help Zuma if asked. The ANC in Mpumalanga has also reiterated its willingness to aid the president. The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has taken it one step further and has already asked its members to mobilise and help the president pay back some of the money. These structures, illustrating the general attitude of the ANC, have thus declared that they do not care about the Constitutional Court, the Public Protector, or accountability in the executive in general.
The claims of poverty by Michael and Edward are contradicted by the number of businesses that several of Zuma’s children are involved with. As an example, Edward Zuma had a wedding worth R2.5 million in 2011, although it can be shown that he did struggle to pay the bills for the extravagant event.
Duduzane Zuma has stakes in at least six active companies. He is a director at Shiva Uranium (owned by the Gupta family), South Africa’s only dedicated uranium mine, which is valued at over R14 billion on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). In 2011, Duduzane was living in a home worth R4 million and owned, amongst others, a Porsche 911 Turbo (worth R2 million) and a Chrysler 300c (worth R500 000). I’ll admit to being unsure what “rich” means, if that is not a good example of it.
Zuma’s nephew, Khulubuse, is also a very wealthy businessman. He has been reported as having owned 20 cars in total at one point, including a Rolls-Royce (the cheapest model is worth R2.9 million in 2016), a Bentley Continental GT (worth at least R2.8 million in 2016) and a Mercedes-Benz SLS 63 (worth at least R3.2 million in 2015). 20 cars, and the 3 mentioned specifically cost more together than a whole suburb of RDP housing (probably over 100 houses, depending on estimates used).
Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng’s ruling stated that Zuma was “personally” liable for paying the bill for Nkandla and thus, there has been some confusion concerning whether the president is allowed to receive donations. Several wealthy businessmen who have aided Zuma financially in the past, have withdrawn and are now unwilling to aid Zuma. The common rumour – impossible to confirm, but sounding very reasonable – is that Zuma is no longer worth as much to businesspeople, as his term is ending soon and he is already overstretched on providing patronage benefits.
Michael Zuma said: “Sometimes I look at him and suspect that he’s changed, all these things have changed him, changed his reasoning and he is not OK. I know him. I am his brother.” The Zuma family, then, seem to be concerned that Zuma is stressed. This comes with other concerns, such as whether Zuma will be sent back to prison now that the 783 corruption charges against him have been reinstated. They made no mention of how Zuma’s action and inaction have pushed the South African economy into a nosedive towards recession.
Mmusi Maimane, leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) has made it clear that he believes that the president must pay back the money himself, not any of his family of friends. This is a sentiment shared by many South Africans.
For many of us, it is probably not about the money. It is about that slim hope of seeing a corrupt politician get punished when the government is actively sheltering him from the consequences of his actions.
Equally, this feels like a hard-won victory of the rule of law over the spreading ANC corruption. If even Zuma, the ANC god-king of corruption, can bleed, none can truly rest easy as “above the law”. Still, this is like catching Al Capone for tax fraud – good, but not as it should have been.
Help me make this right as it should long since have been – vote the ANC out of your municipality. Like a violent drunk, they need rehab, and they will only accept that fact if they realise that the South African public is serious about getting a divorce if they keep up the abuse.
Please have a look at other articles by Lelouch Giard at A Vigilant Voice
South Africa Today – South Africa News
