Zuma’s wife in hot water over renovations

President Jacob Zuma’s third wife, Thobeka Madiba-Zuma, who commissioned renovations to her
R8.8 million Durban North home without planning approval from the eThekwini Municipality, is to face rates penalties and might be forced to demolish illegal alterations to the house if her plans are not approved.

Two weeks ago the Sunday Tribune revealed that Madiba-Zuma’s opulent hilltop home, bought from former Springbok rugby captain Gary Teichmann, was being expanded to accommodate Madiba-Zuma and her two children.

The property was bought by the Madiba Family Trust in March last year and was transferred in August. Weeks later, construction crews started extensive renovations.

Madiba-Zuma’s neighbours complained that upgrades to the five-bedroomed home had seen large sections of roof removed and construction waste piling up in the driveway.

Madiba-Zuma said renovations to the house had stalled to obtain planning approval because the structure was more than 60 years old.

She added that the renovations did not entail expansions, but instead “followed recommendations by various professionals to cater for my family’s circumstances”.

However, aerial photographs clearly show extensive expansions to both the north and south-facing sides of the house, including the addition of rooms.

eThekwini Municipality development planning deputy head Musa Mbhele told the Sunday Tribune that renovations had started without the necessary planning approval and work halted at the site only after the building inspectorate served notices on Madiba-Zuma.

“The construction on site was identified as illegal by the building inspector. The owner has 30 days to submit a building plan for consideration,” he said.

“No building may take place on site until the building plan is approved. If construction takes place prior to approval of the building plan, the owner and the contractor may be liable for legal prosecution and further sanctions, such as a rates code change to increase the rates five times the value as a form of penalty for building and occupying a house illegally.”

Mbhele said if Madiba-Zuma continued to flout by-laws the city would take legal action, which could involve a court order to demolish the illegally constructed portions of the house.

Durban North Ratepayers Association chairwoman Irene Reid said the house was an “eyesore” after the renovations stalled early this year.

“It is cases like these we… have rooted out. It is an absolute eyesore. We do not want Durban North to end up looking a terrible state,” she said.

Reid added that Zuma had flouted the municipal by-laws that governed additions to residential properties.

“People these days just do what they want. I wouldn’t be surprised if the municipality is turning a blind eye to this just because she is one of the president’s wives.

“Neighbours and those who are unhappy with how the house looks need to put pressure on Mrs Zuma and submit objections to the municipality until something is done about this,” she said.

Madiba-Zuma could not be reached for comment this week.

According to publicly available documents, two loans from FNB totalling R8.15m were registered to buy the property.

If she paid a 10 percent deposit and additional costs and transfer fees, Madiba-Zuma would have had to furnish nearly R1.5m to apply for the bonds.

Monthly repayments on this bond, calculated at an interest rate of 8.5 percent, would cost more than R70 000 a month over 20 years.

According to court records, the Madiba Family Trust was founded in February last year, one month before the purchase of the Monteith Place property. Madiba-Zuma is the trust’s founder and the beneficiary is listed as her daughter, Nqobile Zuma.

Jacob Zuma’s lawyer Michael Hulley and Faith Ntombela are the other listed trustees.

Ntombela, an Ithala Development Bank employee, shared directorships with Madiba-Zuma in three companies, namely Lavender Sky Investments 25, Vautrade and Glenlyn Investments.

- Sunday Tribune

Cape fires claim 3 lives

Cape Town - Three people died and 42 people were left homeless in fires across the city over the weekend.

Anelesiwe Sigwela, 19, and her boyfriend, known only as “Thando”, burnt to death in a shack fire in Taiwan informal settlement, Khayelitsha, on Sunday morning

Her brother, Zukisa Sigwela, who lived close by, said he couldn’t explain how sad he felt.

“At midday (on Saturday) was the last time I saw her. She was at my mom’s place when I went to visit,” he said. Tears spilt down his cheeks as he recalled how he heard screams in the early hours of yesterday.

“People were saying that my sister died in the fire, but I didn’t believe it.

“After they extinguished the fire I went to look at the remains and couldn’t believe that it was her.”

Zukisa said he was close to his younger sister.

Anelesiwe’s sister, Phelakazi Sigwela, said Anelesiwe was well loved by her friends. “She was a bubbly person and she loved her friends.

The last time I saw her on Saturday she was sitting under a tree outside our mom’s place. We were having food and drinks. I just feel so hurt,” Phelakazi said.

Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, spokesman at the Disaster Risk Management Centre, said 16 people were left homeless in the fire.

He added that the victims lived in separate structures that had been encircled by the blaze.

“It is believed that the fire was caused by a candle that had fallen over,” Solomons-Johannes said.

In Parkwood on Saturday, 26-year-old Tyrone Saal died when his house was gutted by fire.

Two adults and four children were left homeless.

On Saturday afternoon, a fire was reported at Mimosa Close, Westridge, in Mitchells Plain, where 14 people lost all their possessions and one woman was treated for smoke inhalation.

During two separate incidents in Mfuleni on Saturday, four structures were destroyed in Luyolo and Mvumvu streets, displacing six people.

Solomons-Johannes said the city’s disaster response teams assisted the fire victims with food parcels, blankets, baby packs, clothing and building material as well as emergency psychosocial trauma counselling.

Sapa reported that three people, including a toddler, died when their shack caught fire in Lerato Park, Roodepan, yesterday morning.

The owner of the shack said he was at his neighbour’s house when his home was gutted by fire, said Lieutenant Andrea Cloete in a statement.

The man’s girlfriend, 34, their three-year-old daughter and the girlfriend’s 62-year-old mother were inside.

All three died on the scene.

Cloete said that an inquest docket had been opened.

- Cape Argus

Santa's First Stop - Nkandla

Six died, hundreds displaced after fires

Six people have died and more than 360 were displaced after fires that ravaged parts of the country this week, according to various officials.

The deadly blazes were mostly shack fires.

On Sunday, three people including a toddler died when their shack caught fire in Lerato Park, Roodepan, in the Northern Cape.

The owner of the shack said he was at his neighbour when his home was gutted by fire, said Lieutenant Andrea Cloete.

The shack owner's girlfriend, 34, their three-year-old daughter, and the girlfriend's 62-year-old mother were inside.

Cloete said an inquest docket has been opened.

In the Western Cape, two people were killed when their homes caught fire in separate incidents in Khayelitsha on Sunday morning.

Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, spokesman for Cape Town metro's disaster risk management centre, said the one fire was caused by a falling candle, while the cause of the second blaze was unknown.

Two other fires on Sunday morning destroyed two other houses in the same area, with sixteen people left homeless.

In Durban on Sunday, twenty shacks were destroyed at the Kennedy Road settlement in Clare Estate.

On Saturday a man died when his shack in Parkwood, in Mitchell's Plain in Cape Town, caught alight.

Dozens of people were left homeless, as well as others due to fires in Philippi and Mfuleni, in Cape Town.

Meanwhile, residents in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro were advised to beware of veld fires, which began on Sunday.

Spokeswoman Martie Nel said there was a major fire in veld in Sardina Bay, in Port Elizabeth, on Sunday afternoon.

"Fire fighters are battling with the fire now, they actually brought it under control."

She said there was no risk to life or property.

On Monday, 320 people were displaced when 80 shacks were destroyed by fire in Cape Town in separate incidents.

       

- Sapa

Man killed in Cape Town shack fire

Cape Town - A man burnt to death and 10 people were left homeless after separate shack fires in the Western Cape on Saturday.

A 26-year-old man died after being trapped in his the bedroom of his shack in Parkwood, the City of Cape Town's Disaster Risk Management Centre said.

Spokesman Wilfred Solomons- Johannes said he could not escape a blaze that broke out in his home.

“The fire gutted a formal house and backyard dwelling,” he said.

The blaze also left two adults and four children homeless.

In a separate incident, in Philippi, a fire detroyed a wood-and-iron structure at Brown's Farm informal settlement. Four people were left homeless.

The disaster response teams assisted the victims with food parcels, blankets, clothing and building materials.

Authorities have not yet established the causes of the fires. 

- Sapa

Nation's Non-Existent Affordable Housing Programme

The government's recent demolition of houses in Lenasia, apart from anything else, has exposed how inadequate the state is at providing housing for those who neither qualify for bank mortgages, nor for RDP houses.

The Lenasia families seem to fall into the category of those who qualify for so-called "gap housing" on the basis that they earn between R2200 and about R7500 per month and can therefore afford to pay for their homes. However, gap housing is being rolled out at a snail's pace.

There is much fanfare in a city when a "gap" social housing project of 100 or 200 units is unveiled. But these projects only happen about once a year. Many are not built close to the city and some look little better than the national government's upgraded RDP houses, or "Breaking New Ground" dwellings, even though they are much more expensive to buy or rent.

There is clearly a growing number of people who can't afford market-related bonds but who can raise capital of up to R150 000 to buy land, as they did in Lenasia, where they were unfortunately taken advantage of by fraudsters.

However, there is nowhere for this growing group of people to go when they want to stop renting and start buying homes. Like the poor who often find themselves waiting years for a tiny RDP house, potential gap market homeowners are falling through the cracks.

Government claims that it would be impossibly expensive for it to roll out a programme that would actually deliver a house to everyone who needs a home. By this they mean that they would prefer to spend public money on arms deals, subsidies and rebates to private corporations, and lately nuclear power and upgrades to the presidential home at Nkandla. It seems obvious that if there are people who can afford to pay for land or for a portion of a home, that government should be working with these people and not against them.

However, government has failed to develop a proper social housing programme, which could deliver to people who seem capable of raising funds to get onto the property ladder, as the Lenasia case has demonstrated.

A social and gap housing project could consist of government rezoning and then selling vacant state land to people who can afford to buy land and build their own houses, or partnering with non-profit organisations to build 'mixed-income' developments where the poor and not so poor live side by side. In some countries, such a programme involves building housing developments and then selling a 25% share in the home to someone who then purchases the rest of the shares over time.

There is no such national programme in South Africa.

The government's current "gap" housing programme consists of different projects by the municipalities (all involving delivering very tiny numbers of gap houses every year). There are a few scattered partnerships with non-profit companies here and there. But the combined result of these projects is not making a dent in South Africa's housing problem.

Government has set up a Social Housing Regulatory Authority, whose mandate is to "regulate and invest to deliver affordable rental homes and renew communities". Their strategic plan for the next five years is to approve the building of an average of 5,434 social housing "units" per year. Given that there is a housing backlog of millions, these 5,434 units are a drop in the ocean. Since the authority only approved the building of just over 1000 units last year, even this might be over-optimistic. It also doesn't help people who would prefer to spend their money on buying a home rather than renting. It really is not clear whether the Social Housing Regulatory Authority intends to raise its game and start delivering to the millions of people who currently make up the "gap market".

Government's insistence on privatised housing delivery is as much of an obstacle to it providing gap housing as it has been to RDP housing. The private companies hired by government don't only build poor quality houses for the poor; they also build bad houses and flats for the gap market.

The N2 Gateway flats in Langa, Cape Town were supposed to be a flagship demonstration of the future of social housing in South Africa - built for working people who could afford to pay about R600 per month rent. But when these flats were handed over, residents found to their dismay that costs had been cut to such an extent that 28 units could be opened with one key. Just months later, the flats started leaking and cracking. The renters moved out and the only people who eventually benefitted were the private companies involved in building the flats.

Human Settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale has been saying for over 18 months that he is considering setting up a state housing company to speed up delivery and get money-making private companies out of the picture, but these plans are not progressing beyond talk.

Sexwale has also said that there should be a cut off date for the provision of free housing. And his "each one, settle one" campaign launched at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange 15 months ago, where he called upon "captains of industry" to build houses, has also not taken off. He has made several different and conflicting announcements about the future of housing in South Africa, which does not bode well for anyone seeking either an RDP or a gap house.

Meanwhile, working people are continuing to reject the high-priced free market rental system and look for ways to use their money wisely to build their own homes. In Cape Town, the backyard residents of Mandela Park near Khayelitsha were promised 80 plots of land by the Western Cape MEC for Human Settlements, Bonginkosi Madikizela, in 2010. This promise has still not been fulfilled. In the meantime, residents there have cut through the red tape and spent up to R40 000 each building proper houses on the land.

From time to time, Western Cape government officials arrive on the scene and mark their houses for demolition. The tragedy is that this land was earmarked for those residents anyway - the residents are also doing government a favour by spending their own money on building their houses instead of staying in backyards where they could have demanded more free services. Due to the fact that their houses are not being recognised by the state, Mandela Park is another Lenasia just waiting to happen.

Having a home is the first step towards ushering in some certainty in people's lives. It is the foundation for the development of a stable and secure society. Do our leaders not see this?

- allAfrica

Nkandla scandal continues

CAPE TOWN - The Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday President Jacob Zuma admitted that the National Key Point Act processes were not followed in the construction of his Nkandla home.

DA Parliamentary Leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said Zuma also revealed he did not receive a notification that the site had been declared a National Key Point, as is required by Section 3 of the National Key Point Act of 1980.

Zuma provided a written reply to Mazibuko's parliamentary question on the controversial development.

She said the flouting of the Act's processes is evidence that it was used to hide details of the upgrade costing more than R250 million.

“We are going to ask further questions to the ministers of police and defence to establish what they are doing to get this money back from President Zuma. He owes the South African people R250 million for this upgrade.”

DA leaders slammed Nkandla at its at a party congress in Boksburg last month and claimed they will soon be taking over Gauteng.

- Eyewitness News

320 displaced in Cape fires

Cape Town - About 320 people were displaced after 80 shacks were destroyed in two different fires in Cape Town, the city's fire and rescue services said.

Spokesman Theo Lane said the first started in Section 6, California informal settlement at 7pm on Monday night.

“About 60 shacks burnt down and 200 people were displaced. No injuries were reported,” he said.

“The fire was caused by a cooking stove left unattended. It overheated and ignited personal effects and then spread to other shacks.”

Lane said the second fire started at 12.15am on Tuesday morning in 8th Avenue informal settlement.

About 20 shacks were burnt down and 120 people were left displaced.

“No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire is unknown at this stage,” said Lane.

Both fires were extinguished, he added. - Sapa

Madiba-Zuma’s palace on the hill

A Durban North mansion, purchased last year by Thobeka Madiba, President Jacob Zuma’s third wife, has stood unoccupied for months after renovations to the opulent hilltop manor stalled.

The palatial Monteith Place home, on sprawling grounds that boast a tennis court and a swimming pool, has had large sections of its roof removed to allow for extensions to the already expansive home. Rubble and refuse from uncompleted renovations to the five-bedroomed house are piled high in the driveway.

Registered in the name of the Madiba Family Trust, of which Madiba is a trustee, the home was sold by former Springbok rugby captain Gary Teichmann in March last year for R8.8 million and transferred in August 2011.

Publicly available documents show that two loans from FNB totalling R8.15m were registered to buy the property.

If she paid a 10 percent deposit and additional costs and transfer fees, Madiba would have had to furnish nearly R1.5m to apply for a bond. Monthly repayments calculated at an interest rate of 8.5 percent would cost more than R70 000 a month over 20 years.

It is unclear where the funds for bond repayments and renovations originated, with Madiba insisting her “private home” is paid for by her and her family.

Madiba is a director of five close corporations, one of which is her Thobeka Madiba-Zuma Foundation.

According to a neighbour, who would not be named, renovations on the property started in March this year.

“Alterations commenced after the property was sold, and no one has ever moved in. It looks as though contractors started to extend the house, and portions of the tiled roof were taken off.

“All of a sudden the work stopped, and it has been standing like that for ages,” he said.

“Water pours through the roof because the plastic sheeting meant to prevent this is inadequate. Weeds flourish and junk is piled high.

“The wiring from the electric fence is damaged and hangs all over the place,” he added.

Following enquiries made by our sister paper The Sunday Tribune, new building contractors started repairing the roof.

When questioned, Madiba insisted enquiries about her “private home” were an invasion of her privacy.

“The circumstances relating to my private home are not matters which should be reported on or can be said to be in the public interest, given that the property was not acquired with public funds, nor has the state played any role,” she said in a written response.

“I have no doubt that information giving rise to your questions is for the purpose of trying to cause embarrassment to myself, and indirectly to my husband, by implying that either he or his family members are using state funds to acquire and renovate their properties,” she added.

“I do not permanently reside in any of the official presidential residences. I live in my own apartment which my family and I have outgrown.”

Madiba has one child with the president, but is also believed to care for another child fathered by Zuma in a relationship out of wedlock.

“The renovations were halted in order to obtain required planning approval, including heritage approval, given that the home is more than 60 years old.

“They (renovations) do not entail the expansion of the home. They follow recommendations by various professionals to cater for my family’s circumstances,” she insisted.

According to court records, the trust was founded by Madiba in February 2011, a month before the purchase of the property. The beneficiary of the trust is her five-year-old daughter, Nqobile Zuma.

Michael Hulley, Jacob Zuma’s lawyer, and Faith Ntombela are the other listed trustees.

Ntombela, an employee of the Ithala Development Bank, shared directorships with Madiba in three companies, namely Lavender Sky Investments 25, Vautrade and Glenlyn Investments. 

- Sunday Independent

Taxpayers may cover councillors’ homes

Taxpayers will now fork out millions of rands a month to pay a special risk insurance cover for the country’s more than 10,000 councillors and their own properties against violent service delivery protests.

This comes after the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Richard Baloyi published a notice in a government gazette last week compelling all municipalities to take the special risk insurance for councillors.

The directive forms part of the newly published wage increases, allowances and benefits of municipal mayors, speakers, members of the executive, chief whips, committee members and councillors.

An elected full time municipal councillor can earn up to R747 000 a year, depending on the grading of a municipality, in a package that includes travelling, housing, cellphone allowances, pension and medical aid contributions.

The gazette orders municipalities to take out cover similar to risk insurance to provide for loss or damage to a councillor’s property or assets arising from any riot, civil unrest, strike or public disorder or ensure that councillors have such cover for their properties.

The gazette places responsibility on the councillors to provide all necessary details to a municipality regarding property or assets to be covered by the special risks insurance.

If a councillor takes out a risk policy to cover the loss of or damage to a property or assets arising from riots, on submission of the statements paid on the insurance, the municipality must refund the insurance amount, it says.

In September, the SA Local Government Association chairman Thabo Manyoni told a special national conference that councillors needed risk cover against the real risk exposure they face in their capacity as local public representatives.

Salga made representations to the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers.

“Overwhelming evidence of councillors being killed in the line of duty, their properties being damaged… or their persons being injured, paints a very bad picture of how government appreciates the dangers inherent in being a local public representative,” Manyoni said at the time. “It is a sad state”.

Manyoni added that the lives and property of councillors were often placed at risk due to issues outside their sphere of governance – over Eskom’s prepaid meters, or poor hospital or police services.

According to Municipal IQ, a local government data and intelligence service, this year has had the largest number of service delivery protests since 2004.

The service’s findings showed that 2012 accounted for 22 percent of protests recorded between January 2004 and July 2012, with January 1 to July 31 recording more protests than any other year since 2004.

In July, a Soweto councillor’s house was set alight when about 300 residents protested over prepaid electricity meters in Chiawelo.

Municipal IQs findings included that:

- Protest activity rose dramatically in the first eight months of this year, with 226 protests;

- If trends continue, this year will have more than twice as many protests as last, and more than in 2010 and 2011 together;

- The Western Cape surpassed Gauteng as the province with the highest number of violent protests this year;

- Before 2012, the Western Cape recorded the most protests in an election year;

- The Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Gauteng accounted for 56.98 percent of protests;

- Land and housing were the most cited issues, 303 in the six-year period. Poor service delivery was second, with 218 protests.

Grievances related to broken promises and government officials ignoring protesters’ complaints have risen exponentially since 2010 but account for less than 10 percent of complaints. 

- Saturday Star

Tutu slams Nkandla, govt

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has criticised the expansion of President Jacob Zuma's home in Nklandla, it was reported on Wednesday.

"Who in their right minds could have approved the expenditure of more than R200m? And to do it in that area, where you have this nice place standing up and just around there the squalor and poverty," said Tutu.

"What is the matter with us?"

The Star newspaper reported that Tutu was speaking at the unveiling of a bench and tree in memory of struggle stalwart Kader Asmal at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens on Saturday.

A video of the event was shown to reporters on Tuesday.

He told National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel, who attended the event: "You don't belong in this government."

Tutu expressed concern about the state of education, the failure to deliver textbooks in Limpopo earlier this year and the recently released results of the National Assessments, which showed that Grade 9 maths pupils scored on average 13%.

"Trevor, you tell your boss this old man who said he was retired, I am going to come back.

"You tell him that this old man is now going to pray like he prayed for the Nats [the National Party, which enforced apartheid]."

Zuma's private residence has recently been upgraded, at a reported cost of R200m. The matter is currently being investigated by a public works task team.

- SAPA

Funding for social housing secured in Western Cape

The Western Cape Minister of Human Settlements, Bonginkosi Madikizela, along with the CEO of the  Social Housing Regulatory Authority (SHRA), Brian Maholo, signed a partnership agreement today that will guarantee funds being available for approved social housing rental projects in the future.

In recent years, the million Rand housing programs run by the Department of Human settlement have been solely financed by funds from SHRA, but despite setting up a business plan for social housing and including it in the Department’s Annual Performance Plan (APP), there were no funding guarantees.

Today the parties signed an agreement creating to assure “the funds to flow in an easier manner”, said the provincial Human Settlements Department spokesperson Kahmiela August.

The agreement meant the department would build houses that would be available for rent at reasonable prices so that poorer people could afford decent accommodation.

Rentals would range from R650 for a bachelor flat, up to a two-bedroom house for R2 200 per month.

August said the department also focused on establishing houses for rent in order to create social mobility and was a pioneer in this respect.

“People can move as job opportunities are changing”, said Zorah Ebrahim, SHRA Chairperson, giving people the choice as to where they want to live.

Additionally, the houses for rent were built in areas where there was access to education, transport and opportunities that they otherwise had been excluded from when living on the margins of the city.

According to Maholo, the social housing project was meant to provide a “stepping stone” for people moving up the housing ladder.

The project also aimed to break down the segregation created by apartheid spatial planning, said Ebrahim, as houses for rent would be built in various areas close to the city rather than on the margins.

In recent years the department had build rental units in Steenberg, Brooklyn and Bothasig Gardens. A total of 789 housing units were created in the past financial year, with another 720 units planned for the current financial year.

However, these units were “a drop in the ocean”, said Madikizela.

“The demand (for houses) is so high, they get taken up in no time before they’re even built.”

The Department hopes to extend the pioneering program to other cities in the province, such as George, Mossel Bay and Stellenbosch. 

- West Cape News

Teacher back at work after losing everything

Cape Town - Although Florence Sotomela, a teacher’s assistant from Site B, Khayelitsha, lost everything in a shack fire, she got up and went to work the next day. All she had left were the clothes on her back.

“I was too heartbroken to do anything else. I did the only thing I could that would help me cope - I went to work,” Sotomela, 30, said.

“After the fire I went over to my older sister’s place in Town Two, Khayelitsha, and she let me stay with her and lent me a pair of jeans to wear to work.”

Sotomela said she had been a backyarder in Site B for the past two years in a shack she shared with her 10-year-old son, Sipho, and her younger sister, Sinazo.

The fire broke out last Wednesday, the day she and her colleagues at Herzlia Constantia Primary and Pre-Primary School had their end-of-year function.

“I got off the taxi and saw a lot of smoke... by the time I got to my street I saw that the flames were coming from our yard. Everything was in flames... I just stood there. It was like all the energy was being drained from me,” she said.

“After firefighters put out the fire, we went to go stay with my older sister and I haven’t been back [to Site B] since.”

Sotomela said the cause of the fire was still unknown.

Jos Horwitz, principal at Herzlia Constantia, said the school had not expected Sotomela to be at work after what had happened to her home.

Horwitz said Sotomela had walked in on Thursday morning and started crying. The school had decided to appeal to teachers and parents to assist her.

Horwitz said that although it was school holidays, there had received a good response from parents after e-mails were sent out.

“People have already donated two beds, some food and clothing and we are still getting more things,” she said.

Horwitz said Sotomela had been working at the school for two years and had started out as a cleaner.

“But she is so good with children, especially the young ones, that we made her one of our teacher’s assistants.

“How brave, how resilient is this amazing woman as she set out for school the following day?” Horwitz said.

Sotomela said she was all the more sad because the clothing she had bought for her son to wear over the Christmas holidays were also lost in the fire.

She would also not be able to go to the Eastern Cape to see her extended family this year.

- Cape Argus

40 homeless after Cape fires

Cape Town - A fire in Gugulethu has left 40 people without homes, a Cape Town city official said on Sunday.

The blaze started in the Europe informal settlement of NY108 around 8pm on Saturday, said disaster risk centre spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes.

He said 10 wood and iron structures were destroyed.

The city was assisting those displaced with food, clothing and other items.

No casualties were reported. The cause of the fire was not known. - Sapa

Welcome to Zumaville

First full view of the massive complex that has South Africans up in arms

There is only one way to get a full view of President Jacob Zuma’s palatial private home at Nxamalala village near Nkandla in Zululand: from the air.

From the P15 – the new road linking Nkandla to Kranskop and passing through Nxamalala – there is only a one-dimensional, partial view of the Zuma complex, which recently underwent a R248 million “security upgrade”, courtesy of the taxpayer.

So City Press decided to take to the air this week to photograph the ever-expanding Zuma compound.

Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi disputed the R248 million figure this week, but wouldn’t say what the state had spent on Zuma’s private residence.

Zuma told Parliament that he and his family paid for his new houses.

Construction is estimated to have cost the president between R10 million and R20 million.

Several critics have pointed out that Zuma would struggle to pay for this alone, given his more than R2 million annual salary and his history of bad debt.

This was amplified by the Mail & Guardian on Friday, which published the previously unreleased 2006 KPMG forensic report into Zuma’s financial affairs.

The report had not been released after Zuma’s corruption charges were controversially dropped in 2009.

The security perimeter fence, which encloses the family complex and the several dozen buildings constructed as part of the security upgrade, is set slightly away from the road.

The complex flows around and up the hillside, with several features, including a helipad, sitting at a level where they can’t be seen from below.

Other buildings, including the more than 20 rondavel-style houses for Zuma’s personnel, are tucked away from view by a bend in the road.

So are the two Astroturf football pitches on the Kranskop-facing side of the estate.

The topography of the area means that there is no hill or high ground from which to view or photograph the entire complex.

This week, we shot pictures which, for the first time, give readers a chance to view the complex, which in the past few years has grown exponentially since its humble beginnings in the early 1990s, when Zuma returned from exile.

Flying west from Eshowe towards Kranskop, the complex looks more like a game lodge than someone’s house.

It stretches across the hillside, with a circle of houses used by Zuma and his wives at the centre.

The growth of the compound has been astounding. When we set foot inside the complex in 2006, there was a simple wire fence around the houses used by the family and a single police post.

By the time of the 2009 inauguration party at Nxamalala, there was still little in the way of security.

According to official Public Works documentation, construction started towards the end of 2009.

Around the family houses, there are several large buildings believed to be the clinic and gymnasium built for the family’s use, and a reception facility for visitors.

All the buildings have the same thatched roofs and are painted in the same colour.

There are no visible entrances for the bunker and the underground parking areas.

Since City Press first exposed the massive amounts of public money spent on the estate by the department of public works through its prestige portfolio, there has been a discussion about how best to illustrate what the money was spent on.

There were no pre-existing aerial pictures and all the satellite images available predated Nkandlagate.

Although Zuma’s office and the department of public works have maintained that the residence was indeed declared a national key point, the police have so far refused to provide proof of this.

- Citypress

zumaville1eb

Zuma payments: Of battleships and Nkandla

The financing of the Nkandla project makes it clear that Jacob Zuma's home is built on shaky foundations of friends and would-be favours.

Jacob Zuma's Nkandla ­homestead was born in arms-deal sin. The ongoing saga of the construction, financing and outfitting of the president's rural seat captures the mixture of chaos, influence and excess that seems to characterise Zuma's relationship with money – and with his many benefactors.

And, of course, the story of Nkandla also weaves in the thick strand of graft introduced by the notorious "encrypted fax", which alleged that Zuma and Schabir Shaik had concluded a secret bribe agreement with French defence company Thomson-CSF.

Read more on the 'kept politician'

Zuma corruption: South Africans have a right to know

Secret report reveals how millions flowed to Zuma 

Banks bent over backwards for Zuma

All the president's willing benefactors: Part one

All the president's willing benefactors: Part two

The history of the Nkandla development set out in the report by audit firm KPMG prepared for Zuma's trial is striking for how many people were involved in paying for it before the president spent a cent.

It was Zuma's close friend, Mpumulanga businessperson Nora Fakude-Nkuna, who first approached architects on his behalf in February 2000 and it was her company, Bohlabela Wheels, that  paid the R34 200 bill.

Indeed, it is a mystery how Zuma expected to be able to pay for the project at all, because his monthly living expenses were already more than double his monthly income – unless, of course, he was expecting a new cash injection.

That is the view KPMG takes of the meeting between Zuma, Shaik and Thomson's South African boss, Alain Thetard, which took place on about March 10 2000 in Durban.

The meeting was captured in Thetard's March 17 2,000 encrypted fax to his bosses in Paris setting out what transpired.

Thetard wrote that he had asked Shaik to obtain a "clear confirmation" from Zuma, or "at least an encoded declaration" to "validate" a request made by Shaik at the end of September 1999.

Thetard indicated that he had defined a code and Zuma had given  the coded confirmation.

Thetard reminded his bosses of the two main objectives of the "effort" they were being asked to make: "Thomson-CSF's protection during the current [arms deal] investigation" and "JZ's permanent support for future projects". An "effort" of R500 000 a year was indicated.

Shaik told his trial this meeting was about a donation to Zuma's charitable education trust, an explanation rejected by the court. In February 2003, Zuma denied to Parliament such a meeting had taken place.

In any event, Zuma's builder, Eric Malengret, started on the Nkandla project in about July 2000. The agreed price was R1340 000.

Events proceeded as follows:

August 14 2000  R100 000 sourced from Bohlabela and Fakude-Nkuna is deposited to Malengret's company account by Zuma's nephew, Kusa;

October 4 2000 R40 000 more arrives from Bohlabela;

October 6 2000 Shaik writes to Thetard regarding "the subject matter agreed by ourselves in Pretoria … Several months later no real action. I share the sentiment with my party that he feels let down." Shaik adds that this is "particularly unpleasing" as "my party" had "proceeded to an advanced stage on a certain sensitive matter";

October 17 2000 – former president Nelson Mandela's R2-million cheque lands in Zuma's account. On the same date Zuma, apparently by agreement with Mandela, issues a cheque for R1-million to Zuma's charitable education trust;

October 18 2000   an unidentified person, named only as "Sew", deposits R50 000 in notes to Malengret's account for Nkandla. The same day, Shaik transfers R900 000 out of Zuma's account to settle some of Zuma's debt to the Nkobi group. An amount of R100 000 is left to reduce Zuma's overdraft. Shaik is apparently un-aware that the R1-million is intended for the Development Africa Trust;

October 19 2000 Shaik confirms in writing his instruction to Malengret the previous day to halt construction on the Nkandla residence. Malengret later testified that Shaik had exclaimed: "Does he [Zuma] think money grows on trees?";

November 2000  Vivian Reddy enters the scene, lending Malengret R50 000 to ease his cash-flow problems owing to Zuma's tardiness in reimbursing him for work completed;

December 6 2000  Zuma tries to write a cheque for R1-million in favour of the Development Africa Trust, ­apparently unaware that Shaik has moved the funds;

December 7 2000 Shaik instructs the bank to stop payment of the Zuma cheque, but now presumably realises he needs to repay Development Africa;

December 8 2000  Shaik faxes to Thetard an application form for a  "service provider agreement" involving four tranches of R250 000. The Shaik trial later ruled the agreement was a sham to disguise payments from Thomson. In his covering letter, Shaik writes: "Kindly expedite our arrangement as soon as possible, as matters are becoming extremely urgent with my client";

February 16 2001 R249 725 from Thomson is deposited into Shaik's Kobitech company account;

February 28 2001 A Kobitech cheque for R250 000 is deposited with Development Africa. Shaik issues three more postdated cheques for R250 000, but they are eventually stopped. Shaik repays Development Africa only much later;

October 9 2001 The Scorpions launch search raids in Durban, France and Mauritius;

June 7 2002  Zuma applies to FNB for a bond for Nkandla, assisted by Reddy;

December 12 2002 FNB confirms to Reddy that the bond over the property has been registered in an amount of R900 000;

January 25 2003  The first debit order to service the FNB bond is debited against Reddy's account for an amount of R12 117;

June 2 2005  Shaik is convicted of corruption;

June 14 2005 Mbeki fires Zuma as deputy president;

June 20 2005 the National Prosecuting Authority announces it will charge Zuma;

June 23 2005 Mandela ­transfers R1-million to Zuma; and

June 25 2005  Zuma makes his first bond payment for Nkandla.

- M&G

Sanitation development not keeping up with urbanisation

The movement of people to major urban centres and mushrooming of shanty towns is throttling the government’s best efforts to provide proper sanitation for all its people, says Deputy Minister of Human Settlements Zoe Kota-Fredericks.

Speaking at the official opening of the World Toilet Summit in Durban yesterday Kota-Fredericks said in South Africa access to effective sanitation was limited and not keeping pace with the rapid rate of urbanisation and industrial growth in cities.

“Less than 20% of citizens are currently served by a public sewer, with the vast majority reliant on various forms of on-site sanitation. In terms of funding, for every rand spent on water, two rands are required for sanitation,” she said.

She added that many other countries in Africa also had a similar lack of limited access to sanitation.

“The lack of proper and basic sanitation captured the national public space in South Africa as a key rallying point in 2011 local government elections. As a result, we established the ministerial sanitation task team to look into the underlying root causes of the lack of sanitation services.”

According to the deputy minister, the task team found there was a lack of coordination between the different spheres of government and weak institutional capacity of the state across the board, coupled with fragmentation of responsibilities for sanitation.

To ensure sanitation woes were tackled, the deputy minister announced that the department was developing a master plan to deal with sanitation. She said sanitation had now become a full national priority.

“The Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission (PICC) has elevated sanitation as one of the key strategic infrastructure projects, now known as SIP 18,” she said.

“Under the stewardship of the PICC, the country is now developing a sanitation and water master plan.

“The overall aim of the master plan is to have comprehensive sanitation services that enhance community wellbeing, reduced health care costs and improve productivity, promote sustainable hygiene behaviour, strengthen coordination between central, regional, district and local areas and integrate sanitation”systems.”

The summit is a gathering of people from governments, municipalities and other sectors from across the world to discuss ways of improving sanitation, the main summit theme.

- TNA

SA has never had a government for the people

We have spent almost two decades “fixing” the wrongs of the “past”.

In truth, it seems that we have never had a government for the people, by the people in South Africa. We started off before the VOC rocked up with their little ships, with an inland turmoil that bordered on successful genocide. Africa’s always been a bit of a rough continent, hasn’t it?

I am not going to walk you through the last 300-and-something years. 

I am, frankly, pretty tired of having the past shoved down someone’s throat, either the survivors of the Anglo Boer war when I was a child, who still looked at English speaking South Africans with mistrust, or the youth, who scream having been wronged in a time before they were even conceived.

What is done, is done, and unless we figure out how we are going to live tomorrow and the day after, the past won’t make one bit of difference to any of us.

Our government blames white farmer murders on the whites, it shoves Malema down our throats with big show, to distract us from the real crisis going on in this country – it’s being robbed blind, raped and left for dead. 

Before we can say a thing, the implementation of Agenda 21 dictates that the e-tolls must go forward – out government signed the paperwork. Before we can protest, our money is spent on the biggest load of self-serving enrichment a government has ever thought up.

No – it’s not just Nkandla, it’s the “freebie” highway that leads to it.

No, it’s not just Jacob’s embarrassing the country with his “it’s my culture” stance, it’s the cost of his lifestyle added to his ignorance, that not only infuriates, but costs lives.

Isn’t this what the entire struggle was about? Trying to fix this garbage?

When I was a kid and the Yes/No Referendum came along, I had no way to have an opinion of my own: my folks’ opinions shaped my own.

As I grew up, I learned that our family straddled the dream of a segregated South Africa, with reactionaries on both ends of the spectrum. It’s never been an easy deduction for me to figure out where they really stand, and what they really want…  I just want a place where I can live, where I have the same opportunities as the guy next to me, regardless of our race, colour, crede, religion, gender, orientation - I want the choices I make in life to be my own.

I want the freedom to decide how I want to spend my time, and my energy. I want the same for you. I want you to be able to choose the life you want. I want you to be able to choose the opportunities you wish to grab, and I want you to be able to find a place of peace, safety and love with the people you want close to you. It’s simple.

Nothing anybody believes or wants is important enough to take a life, or to start a war.

No government has the right to tell any citizen that it’s a second class one. Ever.

Regardless of whether it’s based on race or gender or orientation or religion or culture. A government is supposed to – in its purest form, be a communal kitty and administrative organiaation, that adds the bits and pieces of contributions of time and energy and resources, to build infrastructure for the upkeep of the health, safety and economic growth of the people it serves.

Our government is so far removed from that, that the thing we have heading our country is not even in the same species. The problem isn’t just here. The problem is everywhere. 

I do not believe that it is the government’s business to keep a record of my gender or my colour. Nor is it any of their business to track where I live, what phone I use, or where I travel on the roads. I am a free person. My likes, dislikes, beliefs and decisions, my very movements are not subject to their approval, unless I am harming the rights of another person.

I do not believe it is the right of a government to demand any percentage of my income or earnings to enrich itself, or even to cross-subsidise someone else who doesn’t work.

Would it not make sense to allow people to keep 95% of their earnings rather than 30-odd% (add your personal tax, and company tax, and VAT, and petrol tax, and “sin” tax, and road tax, and import tax… and tell me how much you should be earning!), so that they can grow their business, and employ more people?

Is that not the simple answer?

I move for a vote of no confidence in our entire government.  In the way we educate our children.  In the way we structure industry and commerce.

I call on the people to stand up ,even though we are exhausted and afraid for our safety. Even if we’ve just finished having this conversation with the previous nut trying to order us around.

Stand up – not against each other, but in harmony, in choosing to be one nation, regardless of where we were born, or what race we were born into, or how deep our parents’ pockets were filled with emptiness or abundance.

I’m not interested in the past anymore. And I’m not interested in how things are done.  I want a new way. A bloodless way. A harmonious way.

And if you are just trying to get through the day, and the week, and make ends meet, and have a life worth looking back on with your loved ones, maybe you are too.

- timeslive

Nkandlagate: Zuma benefits from Apartheid

A piece of legislation dating from the apartheid security state stands in the way of the public finding out how much they are paying for Nkandla.

Takeing pictures of President Jacob Zuma's residential complex in Nkandla from a public road and police officials – including VIP guards at the gate of the compound – will be helpful. But try to take photographs of a sign at the entrance of a power station in Limpopo, and security guards are bound to get aggressive.

Such are the vagaries in the application of the National Key Points Act of 1980, a piece of legislation dating from the apartheid security state that, according to the department of public works, stands in the way of accounting to taxpayers about spending at Nkandla.

But the law finds its strangest and most inconsistent application in the lack of concern government officials have shown in disclosing details of security at nuclear sites, while claiming that any release of rand amounts in the Nkandla controversy would be illegal, as would releasing audit reports relating to such spending.

That assertion will be tested again in coming weeks, when Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi receives a report on the Nkandla prestige project from an internal task team. Nxesi this week again stressed that the findings would be made public, but would not commit to releasing the full report.

In October, the acting director general in his department, Mandisa Fatyela-Lindie, said she would face criminal prosecution if she had released Nkandla numbers, despite claiming a document she had delivered to Parliament that costed the Zuma homestead work at R248-million could not exist.

That is a remarkably harsh interpretation of a law that others have taken far less seriously in the past.

Spirited prosecution

In 2006, the then minister of trade and industry, Alec Erwin, claimed a loose bolt that shut down the Koeberg nuclear reactor was an act of sabotage. Although he may not ultimately have been found guilty of a criminal offence, that statement would have been enough for a spirited prosecution; the National Key Points Act sets very strict conditions under which "any occurrence arising out of or relating to terroristic activities, sabotage, espionage or subversion" at a key point may be mentioned.

In early 2011, a security company published details of the solution it had sold to the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa, down to the model numbers of biometric access readers at gates in Pelindaba, the nuclear complex near Hartbeespoort dam. The Key Points Act specifically outlaws the release of "any information relating to security measures" at sites designated under it.

Similar information has been released for other sites classified as key points, though of arguably less importance, such as airports.

In 2012, however, amid the furore around Nkandla, even a list of key points is considered too sensitive to release. In mid-November a formal application by the Right2Know campaign for such a list was denied by the police because providing it "will impact negatively on and jeopardise the operational strategy and tactics used to ensure security at the relevant property or safety of an individual".

The campaign plans to launch an appeal to that denial under the Promotion of Access to Information Act within days, but is already considering the subsequent court action that is likely to follow a second refusal.

Technical details

"We expect they'll tell us 'no' around Christmas time, and that we'll launch a court application sometime in January," said national spokesperson Murray Hunter. "We are very prepared to litigate on this."

Last week the M&G Centre for Investigative Journalism (AmaBhungane) followed exactly that route after an application for information relating to the presidential development at Nkandla to the department of public works was denied. Though the information request, first lodged in July, specifically excludes technical details of security measures, the department first said it could not comply, then ignored a subsequent appeal.

Although the Right2Know application deals broadly with key points and their administration, the AmaBhungane appeal is specific to Zuma's homestead and documents relating to a needs assessment and the process and value of contracts awarded.

Such information is protected because the Nkandla site is a key point, the department of public works said in its initial refusal.

If that is the case, the M&G centre argues in its papers, Zuma himself may be criminally liable for revealing, in Parliament, that security upgrades included bullet-proof windows and a bunker. If not, it said, then Zuma's disclosures show "that even the president must be of the view that there is no legal obstacle to revealing details about what has been procured" for the development.

The sites you are not allowed to know about

An official list of national keypoints is a risk to national security, according to the government’s interpretation of the law. But in their day-to-day business, ministers, their departments and parastatal organisations seem not at all loath to disclose the status of some such points. A combination of speeches and documents delivered in Parliament, government and parastatal tenders, court documents, job adverts and organisation websites, all publicly available, makes possible at least a partial list of installations that carry the keypoint classification.

They include:

• The Union Buildings;
• Koeberg, and possibly all other power stations;
• Pelindaba, the nuclear research facility near Brits;
• OR Tambo, Cape Town and Durban airports;
• The Reserve Bank building in Pretoria;
• Eskom’s national control centre;
• The national control centre for the electronic national administration traffic information system (eNaTIS);
• The proposed core site for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope in the Karoo;
• The government printing works responsible for the manufacture of documents such as passports;
• Various Denel properties, including an ammunition factory;
• Various properties where private company AECI manufactures explosives;
• Certain sections of Onderstepoort, where biological research is done; and
• Storage sections of the Durban harbour.
• Also presumed to be included – though this cannot be confirmed – are post offices, police stations, transmitters and a wide range of government buildings.

How many national key points are there? That too is apparently confidential, perhaps to the extent of obfuscation in their administration to prevent anyone from extrapolating the number. A single regulatory filing by the Airports Company South Africa notes the “National Key Point numbers” for its facilities, with OR Tambo as 00078 and Cape Town airport as 00047. King Shaka airport near Durban, however, carries the number 013332000, which would prevent anyone with access to that number to deduce how many other sites carry the classification.

- M&G

2 killed, hundreds displaced by Cape fires

Cape Town - Two people were killed and 369 people were displaced when a fire swept through the New Rest informal settlement, in Nyanga, early on Sunday morning, the city of Cape Town said.

Disaster management spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said Nkosiyedwa Nqandi, 38, and Msondezi Mponda, 30, were trapped in their shacks and could not escape the blaze. They were declared dead on the scene.

The city's disaster response unit had handed out clothing, food parcels, blankets and building materials to those affected by the fires.

Emergency trauma counselling had been provided to the families of those who died and to witnesses.

Electrical cables were also burnt and the power supply was interrupted, said Solomons-Johannes.

On Saturday night, six wood and iron dwellings burnt down in Vrygrond Informal Settlement in Muizenberg, displacing 20 people, he said.

Also on Saturday, 30 adults and seven babies were displaced when 15 shacks burnt down in Onverwacht Informal Settlement in Strand.

The causes of the fires were being investigated. - Sapa

Nkandla: who will take the fall?

Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi has given the clearest indication yet that some of his department’s officials will take the rap for the R248 million Nkandlagate scandal.

He told Kaya FM host John Perlman during an on-air interview on Thursday: “It is clear in this case that people went over the budget.”

It was the first time Nxesi had spoken out about what may have gone wrong with the exorbitant upgrades at President Jacob Zuma’s rural homestead at KwaNxamalala after initially setting his aim on whistle-blowers.

Nxesi also announced that an internal Public Works investigation into Nkandlagate will be concluded in the next week and that its findings will be made public.

At the same time, it has emerged that the two main contractors on the project – Bonelena Construction and Moneymine Enterprises – may have contravened the construction industry’s regulations by performing work for which they were not qualified.

City Press previously revealed that the two companies were awarded work worth R99 million (Bonelena) and R61 million (Moneymine) respectively on the Nkandla project.

Bonelena owner Thandeka Nene disputed the R99 million figure, but wouldn’t say how much her company was paid.

All construction companies in South Africa are registered and graded by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) according to size and capacity.

Bonelena has a grade 7 general building (potentially emerging) rating, which means it is only allowed to do work up to the value of R40 million.

But the regulations do provide for emerging companies to be given work higher than their grading if the client (Public Works in this instance) is satisfied that the contractor has the potential to develop and provide financial and management assistance to the company.

The Pietermaritzburg High Court liquidated Bonelena in July this year.

Moneymine has a grade 6 general building (potentially emerging) rating, which means it can only be given contracts worth up to R13 million, or a maximum of R40 million if Public Works approves.

Any Public Works official who awards tenders contrary to the industry’s regulations will be guilty of an offence and is liable to a fine not exceeding R100 000, says CIDB spokesperson Kotli Molise.

The Nkandla upgrade forms part of the department’s prestige portfolio, which is also the subject of a corruption investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

Nxesi and his department has been under great pressure to explain how R248 million was spent on “security upgrades” at Zuma’s home that included the building of a clinic for Zuma’s use; a tuckshop for security guards; a cattle culvert (tunnel) and the relocation of three families.

The minister told Perlman it was “very clear” the prices charged for the Nkandla upgrades were “questionable”. He slammed the building industry, saying it was “likely you will be exploited”.

“In some instances we sit with this situation of these tenderpreneurs who are running many projects, running from one project to the other without completing a project.”

Nxesi said the public had the right to be angry about the cost of the Nkandla upgrade, but must give him a chance to complete his investigation.

Asked by Perlman if the state would have to do similar upgrades if Zuma chooses to move to another residence, Nxesi said yes. “Unfortunately, according to the laws, we have to do that if he chooses to do that.”

But, added the minister, Zuma should be “appreciated” for choosing to live in a rural area “with the poor people”.

- City Press