Tafelberg Short: Nkandla - The end of Zuma?. City Press
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host John Perlman during an on-air interview: “It is clear in this case that people went over the budget.”
Nxesi also announced that an internal Public Works investigation into Nkandlagate would be concluded in the following week and that its findings would be made public.
Nxesi said the public had the right to be angry about the cost of the Nkandla upgrade but, added the minister, Zuma should be “appreciated” for choosing to live in a rural area “with the poor people”.
This comment points to the fact that (over)spending at Zuma’s residence is part of a larger pattern of spending in the area.
Not just a compound
Rural development, which took centre stage in the ANC’s 2009 election campaign, would certainly play a pivotal role towards reducing urban migration, informal settlements, unemployment, crime and, most importantly, economic development which will alleviate income inequality and poverty.
However, some would argue that during the course of his presidency Nkandla, Zuma’s village, has become the only village worthy of development.
The number of projects “launched” in the village since the mid-1990s is impressive. They include tarred roads, water purification projects, electricity reticulation, bridges, houses, cattle dipping tanks, sports grounds, a condom factory, a tourism site at King Cetshwayo’s grave and irrigated community gardens. However, few have actually been carried through to completion, according to local people.
Early in 2010, the bad gravel roads leading to President Jacob Zuma’s rural homestead and his dusty village were already undergoing reconstruction and no fewer than two other projects worth almost R40 million were on the cards there.
For residents this was a boom that could only mean improvements to their lives. But some residents complained that development appeared to be concentrated in the area closest to the president’s home.
Hard at work were the companies Namandla Roads and Civils and Zwelonke Construction, tarring the gravel roads from the KwaZulu-Natal midlands towns of Nkandla and Eshowe to Zuma’s village, KwaNxamalala, in projects worth R32 million and R4.9 million respectively. Another company, Phambili Contractors, was completing the road leading to Zuma’s compound. Other projects included the construction of a bridge across the Intsuze River which connects KwaNxamalala with another village, KwaMagwaza.
All three projects were funded by the KwaZulu-Natal transport department.
Locals said that the projects had been stop-start for a while, but Zuma’s rise to power appeared to have injected some urgency into the process.
Other developments in KwaNxamalala since Zuma’s rise to power include National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc) president Lawrence Mavundla’s ambitious shopping mall, the Mamba One-Stop Development Centre which houses social development offices, and a Thusong centre offering services such as the Department of Home Affairs and a fully fledged post office, among other things.
Also, in 2010 it was announced that Zuma’s hometown was to become the site of a massive new R7 million condom factory, also a Nafcoc project. Locals were promised about 500 jobs. Unemployed Enoch Mthiyane (27) said the KwaNxamalala Clinic sometimes ran out of condoms and hoped that the project would help ease this. “Jobs will keep us busy; all we do here is walk up and down aimlessly.”
Alas, by the end of that year, party politics, a lack of communication and petty squabbles among government officials had derailed several development projects at Nkandla.
The local municipality and provincial departments were at loggerheads over the R25-million Mamba One-Stop Development Centre.
The IFP-run municipality argued that the centre duplicates the work done by the Thusong Multipurpose Centre, which was built by the municipality in 1997. The two centres are on opposite sides of the road that runs through the village.
Said mayor Zwelabo Zulu: “They should have consulted us before starting this project, but because some politicians wanted to be seen by Umsholozi (Zuma) as doing something, they just imposed things on us.” He also complained about the condom factory project. “Up to today, nothing has been done despite the fact that there was a sod-turning ceremony for the project,” says Zulu.
By 2011 the grass around the Mamba One-Stop Development Centre had grown to hip-height and dust and spider webs coated empty rooms. For the president’s neighbours near his private homestead, the centre had come to represent all that frustrated them about service delivery from both the Inkatha Freedom Party-run Nkandla council and the provincial government, led by the ANC.
Zinhle MaNtuli, one of the president’s neighbours, said: “There is not much that has changed for us even though the president comes from here. All we want is for government to deliver on its promises and give us the services we deserve.”
Nhlakanipho Shange of the Ezitinini area in Nkandla says they were promised low-cost houses, but they have not been delivered. “The only development we saw is at Zuma’s residence because there is a huge housing project taking place there,” said Shange. “Now it is almost 15 years since the road project started, but it is not complete yet,” he added.
Despite the difficulties of the existing projects, Zuma announced a large new project in Nkandla over Christmas 2010.
An R800 million project, bankrolled by the Shanghai Property Fund, which secures land in South Africa on behalf of major Chinese investors, would see the construction of another shopping mall, and residential and business facilities.
Also, at the end of 2012, the R1.5 billion “Jacob Zuma Highway” was being built by a private businessman.
City Press obtained a letter written by Moeti Mpuru, in which he stated his company was given “authority” by the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government, through the transport department, to “secure development funding” for the surfacing of the highway. But mystery surrounded the funding of the project by Mpuru’s Korong Capital Partners, who took over the project from the KwaZulu-Natal transport department in September 2013.
The relatively unknown Mpuru identified his role as securing development funding, but former transport minister S’bu Ndebele told Parliament that Mpuru’s company would fund the project. Ndebele said Korong would be “leading the construction of this road which, after construction, will be handed over to the (KZN transport department) for asset management and routine maintenance”.
Through his “partners”, Mpuru said, he had secured funding for the project, but needed to pay a US-based attorney $100 000 (R870 000) in legal fees for the “initial phase of the funding” to be released. It was not clear who Mpuru’s partners or funders were and whether they were based in the US. Mpuru offered a local construction company the first 10km of the road – and more work – in return for a loan of R1 million to pay the US lawyer.
The construction company approached by Mpuru for the loan confirmed the approach from Korong. Liviero Group CEO Neil Cloete said the proposal was “not deemed worthy of any follow-up”.
KwaZulu-Natal transport spokesperson Kwanele Ncalane said the department had given Mpuru an “ultimatum” to provide a concrete progress report on work done on the project after failing to meet several earlier deadlines demanded by the provincial cabinet. Korong had not attended several meetings to discuss progress, which left the provincial government unhappy.
Zumaville
Developments at Nkandla were also launched by Masibambisane (loosely translated as “working together”) Development Initiative, a non-profit organisation founded in Nkandla to lobby government and business and channel development funding into the community. It was co-chaired by Jacob Zuma and his cousin, Deebo Mzobe.
In 2012, South African and international investors were wooed to pump millions of rands into the development of “Zumaville”, the nickname given to the R2-billion “smart village” earmarked for Nkandla.
Mzobe said it was Masibambisane which had come up with the