Cape Town – President Jacob Zuma does have a bond on his Nkandla residence, his spokesman, Mac Maharaj said on Tuesday.

“The Presidency has noted weekend newspaper reports implying that President Jacob Zuma may have misled the National Assembly when he said he had a mortgage bond on his residence in Nkandla,” Maharaj said in a statement.

“We reaffirm that President Zuma does indeed have a bond on the residence with one of the national banks and he is still paying it off monthly.”

Maharaj gave no further details.

Zuma told the National Assembly last week that he had taken out a bond to help pay for improvements at Nkandla. But City Press reported at the weekend that a deeds search had not found any bond registered against Zuma’s name.

This prompted the DA to question whether Zuma had not misled Parliament – a punishable offence.

Maharaj said journalists should “respect” the investigations underway into the spending of public funds at Nkandla.

“We urge the media to respect the agencies that are investigating the various aspects of the security enhancements at the residence as speculations and rumour-mongering will not assist the process.”

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