Photocred: SABC
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has announced that it is with almost certainty that they will present their final report on the president’s upgrades at his private Nkandla homestead in KwaZulu-Natal early on next week.
The SIU stated on Monday that the report is in its last stages of finalisation and will therefore be presented to President Jacob Zuma early next week.
After a much-anticipated wait by the public, the SIU stated that it has received all of the documentation and responses needed from the parties involved in the inflated construction project and that the report is being finalised currently. Boy Ndala, spokesperson for the SIU, said earlier today, “It has now received responses from all persons from whom it had requested answers to certain questions it had posed to them. As a result, we are finalising the report.”
Thus far, the South African Department of Public Works has charged no less than thirteen people, all of whom are government officials, in connection with the Nkandla upgrades. The internal hearings, which will decide on the charges to be laid, have yet to begin. The Department of Public Works stated that the officials were all charged after it was unearthed by the SIU’s probe that they had been involved in improper dealings with regards to the upgrades. The department has also allegedly dismissed one of their senior officials after it was found that he had been involved in various upgrades, totalling R60 million, all on officials’ houses.
In March this year, the Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, found that President Jacob Zuma and his family had unduly benefited from the lavish upgrades to his home, which included a swimming pool, an amphitheatre and a cattle kraal, amongst other things. She strongly suggested in her report that the president repay a portion of the upgrades, which cost the state approximately R246 million and that the president respond to these allegations. President Zuma failed to respond to the report and stated that he is formulating a response, pending the outcome of the SIU report.
