Jacob Zuma is unlikely to pay back more than a million rand of the R246-million of taxpayers’ money spent on his Nkandla home.

Legal opinion given to the president, and comments from lawyers representing his adversaries, suggest that Zuma will not be made to pay R1-million for Nkandla.

In March the Constitutional Court ruled that the Treasury should determine “a reasonable percentage of the costs” Zuma must pay for the visitors centre, the amphitheatre, the cattle kraal, the chicken run and the swimming pool built on his property.

These items were deemed non-security-related by public protector Thuli Madonsela. The state spent close to R10-million on the five facilities.

The Sunday Times can reveal that Zuma has been advised that, in terms of the public protector’s remedial action enforced by the Constitutional Court, he would have to pay only a reasonable percentage of the reasonable costs of those five items and not what the Department of Public Works paid for them.

While the public expects Zuma to repay the millions spent on features he personally “unduly benefited” from, Zuma’s legal advice is that the bill to be handed to him would be a fraction of what was spent.
Source: Sunday Times