Zuma's response on Nkandla delayed

"President Jacob Zuma is still seized with preparing the report to the Speaker on the upgrades at his Nkandla home, as undertaken to the Speaker of the National Assembly," Zuma's spokesman Mac Maharaj said in a statement.

 

"The president will submit his report as soon as possible after receiving all the necessary information required for the preparation of the report."

 

Zuma had undertaken to give Speaker Baleka Mbete a comprehensive report on the outcome of three separate investigations into state spending of some R246 million on his private home in the KwaZulu-Natal hamlet by the end of Wednesday.

 

Pressed for further details on the delay, Maharaj said: "It would appear one of the issues is the final report of the Special Investigating Unit."

 

The SIU recently confirmed that its final report had been delayed.

 

Last week, the head of the unit, Vas Soni, told MPs this was partly because two people implicated had failed to respond to questions, partly because investigators were only given access to Nkandla on July 3, more than six months after the start of the probe.

 

He declined to name the two people.

 

Maharaj said he believed the SIU's report was due soon, and that Parliament had been informed of the president's decision to defer his response.

 

Public spending on security upgrades at Nkandla turned into one of the major controversies of the Zuma presidency as costs escalated and it emerged that the project included a swimming pool, an amphitheatre, and chicken run.

 

In March, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found Zuma had derived undue benefit and should pay for some of it out of his own pocket.

 

Zuma declined to respond to Madonsela's report in full within the required fortnight and said instead he would wait for the SIU's findings.

 

On July 5, the African National Congress chief whip's office said Zuma had received the provisional SIU report and would provide Mbete with a final and comprehensive response within 30 days.

 

Soni told Parliament's justice portfolio committee last Thursday it pained him the SIU report was being held up, but that he could not indicate when it would be completed.

 

Zuma signed a proclamation on December 18 giving the SIU the go-ahead to investigate "intentional or negligent loss of public money" at Nkandla.

 

(File photo: Gallo images)