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PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma has compared the construction of George Arport for apartheid head of state PW Botha, and his own home in Nkandla, Beeld reported yesterday. Answering a question during a Sunday lunch to mark Media Freedom Day, he said he lived in a state house without paying rent and travelled on state planes without paying for it. “Is this an unfair advantage?” he asked.
When it was pointed out that his Nkandla dwelling was a personal home, not state property, Zuma said it was the state’s duty to protect the president and deputy president.
Zuma said the airport in George was not built for economic reasons.
“It is because Botha lived there (Wilderness).”
He wanted to know why there was so much criticism over Nkandla saying: “Is Nkandla not meant to produce a president?”
The government spent R246m on upgrades to Zuma’s Nkandla home. Public Protector Thuli Madonsela recommended that he repay that part of the money not spent on security.
Meanwhile, disciplinary hearings for officials who signed off on aspects of the project were under way. Parliament was disrupted by a call by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) that Zuma “pay back the money”, and the architect who worked on the project is challenging his alleged liability for overspending in court.
On Sunday, Zuma said he felt “persecuted” by local media over the upgrades. After three reports — by the public protector, an interministerial task team and the Special Investigating Unit — Zuma on Sunday said the dominant narrative in the public domain was that “Zuma ate money”.
President Zuma’s office denied media reports on Sunday that he would not attend to his parliamentary responsibilities because of the Nkandla saga. A session in which Zuma was answering oral questions in Parliament in August descended into chaos after the EFF demanded that Zuma “pay back the money”, which formed part of the recommendations contained in the public protector’s report.
Speaking candidly to journalists on the sidelines of a media freedom celebration at the presidential guesthouse in Pretoria, Zuma said he felt he was being treated unfairly.
He questioned the media for failing to report that none of the three investigations into Nkandla had found that he had stolen any money during the upgrades. When questioned about the “undue benefits” that accrued to him and his family, according to the public protector, Zuma said no fuss was made about the state home that he occupied in Pretoria or the fact that he was provided with free flights across the country. Also, there was no outcry over an airport built in former president PW Botha’s home town.
He said the media made no reference to the fact that a “village” was built by the government in Nkandla. He also alluded to the pictures shown of his residence, saying they exaggerated the scale of the property.
In an address to the media earlier, Zuma had cautioned that rights — such as freedom of expression — should be balanced with responsibilities. No one should assert their right while trampling on those of others, he said.
“Sometimes we exercise our rights to the detriment of the rights of others,” he said, in reference to violent service delivery protests. Zuma observed that citizens on the rest of the continent did not protest. Those countries, he said, without being specific, did not have a programme to assist poor people like South Africa did.
“In no country in the world will you see a government give people houses free of charge because they are poor … nowhere,” Zuma said.
“People in this country have a reason to protest because we said to them we will address your issues. You can’t find protests in other places because there is no hope.”
He said when foreigners came to South Africa, they “thrived” because they knew they were alone and had to work hard. South Africans, on the other hand, waited for the government. – Sapa.
Online Reporter