Nkandla leak: one step closer to the truth

The leaking of the draft Nkandla report played out like a well-rehearsed drama: the crusading investigative reporters, the outraged nation, the unflappable government and the defensive ANC. But the details are out there now. And they are explosive. Whatever happens from here, ALEX ELISEEV argues, we are a more empowered citizenry.

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and the Security Cluster Ministers argued about it in court papers, each accusing the other of something that hadn’t happened yet. Sure Madonsela’s investigation had sprung a few leaks, but the dam wall only broke on Friday morning, as the Mail & Guardian newspaper hit the streets.

The government wants us to believe that the flood of information is a bad thing, that it somehow compromises the integrity of the investigation. But what it really does is enlighten us as a nation preparing to vote in a new set of leaders next year.

The provisional findings against President Jacob Zuma are earth-shaking. Okay, maybe we’re getting a little carried away with all the earthquake warnings in Nkandla, but they are certainly damning.

Madonsela has found that Zuma derived “substantial personal benefit” from the upgrades at his homestead and that those upgrades exceeded any security needs he may have. It pins the spending at R215 million, although the Department of Public Works is on record saying only R208 million of taxpayer’s money was spent.

Speaking of being on the record... Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi is on the record saying “All we paid for was the security upgrades”.

Madonsela’s report suggests that’s a blatant lie.

Her report identifies various features that were built not for security purposes but for Zuma’s comfort. These include a luxurious swimming pool, visitor’s centre, amphitheatre (yes, an amphitheatre), cattle kraal, marquee area, extensive paving and homes for relatives.

The working title of the report is “Opulence on a Grand Scale”. You do the maths. And that’s excluding the so-called security upgrades, like bunkers that can detect deadly gas attacks and underground escape tunnels.

The report finds that Zuma violated the Executive Ethics Code in two ways: by misleading parliament (a nice way of saying he lied) and by failing to protect state resources (a nice way of saying he stole, abused or was reckless with our money). Madonsela wants Zuma to pay back some of the money spent on Nkandla and to account to parliament, Dina Pule style. Both of these actions would be deeply embarrassing for a president.

But Zuma’s headache doesn’t stop there. The report also nails the President’s architect, Minenhle Makhanya, saying he and other contractors were not subjected to proper tender processes. Makhanya has no security experience nor a security clearance, but became the “tail that wagged the state dog” due to “political interference”. As lead agent, he contributed to the “uncontrolled creep” of the project’s scope, laughing all the way to the bank.

Madonsela’s findings include that even South African icon Nelson Mandela had to make do with a clinic at a nearby town and didn’t have his own. The helipads and handouts for police VIP guards (those guys that ride you off the road and beat up journalists) could also have been moved to a communal space, the Public Protector suggests.

The Mail & Guardian team fought through the courts to secure access to 12 000 pages of evidence in the Nkandla upgrades and write on it with authority. You can read the article here.

The findings, even provisional ones, paint a frightening picture of a monarch being showered with opulence. It’s easy to see what inspired the report’s title. To add some punch, we are shown a comparison of how much was spent on security upgrades at the homes of former presidents (R32 million went to Mandela, R12 million to Thabo Mbeki) and are treated to a Zapiro cartoon of Zuma floating in a swimming pool filled with money. Anyone who has so much as driven through Diepsloot or Alexandra – never mind anyone who lives there - would have punched the walls upon reading the contents of Madonsela’s report.

The reaction was swift and predictable. Calls for investigations, petitions for impeachment and all round outrage. It took government and the ANC a bit longer to respond because the Security Cluster ministers were meeting with Madonsela, accusing her of the leak.

The ANC (which has the power to take action against a president who is clearly allergic to good governance and breaks out in scandal every few weeks) says it’s waiting for the final report and support Zuma until then. It’s a safe move because the report is in draft stage and history has shown us that reports can and do change.

The Ministers (who tried to stop detailed photographs of Nkandla being published) painted Madonsela as the culprit by saying she has agreed, after meeting them, to “follow the proper process of handling such reports”. Suggesting, of course, that she has not done so until now.

But ask yourself, who has more to gain from the report being leaked? It’s a difficult question because it swings both ways. Madonsela may have been scared that her report will get shut down and not see the light of day, so the information had to get out somehow. On the other hand, government knows the report is coming, it knows what it contains, and casting doubt on it and kicking up dust about the media leak could have been a strategic move. Already, government defenders are calling in to radio shows, speaking about how frequently Madonsela’s reports leak, shoveling doubt on whether the investigations are objective and fair. Great ammo for a potential legal battle later.

We don’t know who leaked the report. But what’s important is to stay focused on the contents and not get drawn into the sideshows. We now have the details of Madonsela’s findings while government is using its own internal investigation to clear Zuma of any wrongdoing.

We decide what we believe.

Also, we must accept that this is a preliminary report and the final one may be different. If this happens, we will be called on to formulate our beliefs about why it happened? Was it because government offered a solid explanation which changed Madonsela’s mind or was it something more sinister.

Point is: Now South Africa is part of the process. There is transparency. There is information. There is power flowing to the voters.

A wise editor always used to tell me: Once the sh*t is out of the donkey, you can’t shove it back in. The same is true for the Nkandla scandal. The information is out there.

Don’t expect Zuma to resign next week or to be recalled. As political analyst Prince Mashele said, he’s probably “floating in his swimming in Nkandla as we speak”. Mashele said the ANC will protect Zuma, regardless of the magnitude of the scandal. But we may be closer now to some kind of a tipping point.

How public money is spent on a presidential palace is of overwhelming public interest. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. We’ve been lied to before and we will hear more lies in the future. But we are now a step (maybe even a few steps) closer to the truth. 

- DM

Nkandla: Uncontrolled Creep, and other words to live by

Whatever the leaked Nkandla report proves about South Africa’s own Versailles, it is primarily useful because it introduces a new term into the South African lexicon. “Uncontrolled Creep.” Hash tag it, folks—it’s the malaise of our era. By RICHARD POPLAK

UNCONTROLLED CREEP.

An adverb plus a verb? An adjective plus a noun? Both? Neither? Before we wrestle with the grammatical intricacies, we should spend a moment considering just how South Africa arrived at the new coinage that has, over the course of the last few days, come to define our abject present tense.

The term comes from the lips of a newly famous star-chitect named Minenhle Makhanya, who I like to think of as the Daniel Liebeskind of the bottom of Africa, and is the individual primarily responsible for turning an already considerable homestead into a mega-secure 21st century version of the Playboy Mansion. Makhanya, by way of describing the steady evolution of Nkandla’s security upgrade, intimated that the “tail had begun to wag the dog”, which means that process took on a life of its own. When speaking to the compilers of Thuli Madonsela’s colourful report, he elaborated by describing the Nkandla process as a sort of institutional madness that can very easily set in when working on a project of significant scope, for no lesser a personage than the leader of the most powerful country in Africa.

Some of you may have experienced much the same thing when renovating your own homes. You jet off to the Hypermarket to purchase paint and some barbed wire with the intention of freshening the joint up and discouraging interlopers, and return with a carport, a sauna, a flatscreen television, a rumpus room, a tennis court and a helipad. Before you know it, you’re ever so slightly over budget and forced to call in a host of new specialists, who in turn drive the budget up even further, and need more stuff, which requires more specialists—you know, the tail wagging the dog. Happens all the time: if Makhanya were hired to build a three story KFC with parking for 12, the end result would resemble the Burj Dubai.

In a country of rampantly ambitious strivers, this sort of thing is not only to be expected, but applauded.

Don’t call it a screw up. Call it “uncontrolled creep”. What an excessively beautiful term! Uncontrolled creep absolves the architect of responsibility because, like some dread Ebola strain that eats through even the healthiest of flesh, it is a phenomenon that just happens, that can’t be avoided once it begins. Like the Frank Gehry acolyte he clearly is, Makhanya was not only the architect, but was also appointed the overseer of the architect. So if we are to employ his own logic, he must be doubly absolved of any responsibility, because he was doubly stricken by uncontrolled creep—first as his own employee, and then as his own employer. And Jacob Zuma is certainly faultless: how could the president, buried under the weight of his official duties, be expected to stem this unstoppable infection, which ravaged Nkandla affecting even the modest chambers built for “relocated relatives”? Call it what you will: architectural gangrene, builder’s bone cancer, upgrader’s myocardial infarction.

Rather, call it uncontrolled creep.

In the case of Nkandla, we have learned over the past few days that uncontrolled creep was the cause of several upgrades that (were we talking the international space station) should properly be considered nominal. Let’s leave aside for the moment the underground bunker, capable of withstanding a gas attack, that came with a R19.6 million price tag. (Those costs admittedly including covered walkways). I’m thinking of the “fire pool”—another splendid term newly inaugurated into the South African discourse—that is both oblong luxury water feature and a handy reservoir for beleaguered firefighters saving the president and his court from the Molotov cocktails flung by marauding enemies. The fire pool, a signature collaboration between Makhanya and Zuma, comes with essential underground parking for a safe getaway should one experience a swimsuit malfunction, and cost only R2.8 million. I’ll bet there must be a Russian oiligarch or two who would raise an icy Belvedere and say “provst” to Makhanya’s ingenuity, and have him whisked off to Krasnoyarsk to help pimp their own cribs—no one does security upgrades better than South Africans.

I should probably mention the revamped kraal, replete with chicken coop, reinforced culvert and perimeter fence that cost around R2 million. My limited knowledge of animal husbandry allows that spending US$200,000 on a cattle pen is a small price to pay for the safety of Zuma’s bovine charges (to say nothing of the poultry) that certainly don’t deserve the sort of violence that Nkandla’s retrofitting is designed to forestall.

There is now a visitor’s centre, a clinic, two helipads, an amphitheatre (will King Lear be performed on endless loop? One hopes.), cozy quarters for security personnel, and other features that, should they have been installed outside the walls of the palace, might have accidentally benefitted the very masses this upgrade was meant to protect our president from. Yes, things got a little out of hand. Yes, Zuma appointees billed the state around R90 million. Yes, it cost R183 million more than Nelson Mandela’s own security upgrade, which was quaintly considered excessive at the time. And yes, since Hendrik Verwoerd was knifed by the only person in the country more insane than he was, the presidents of this country have enjoyed an untarnished run of surviving the position, and thus don’t properly need covered walkways for their bunkers.

Just don’t refer to Nkandla as a symbol of corruption and sleaze so grand that it makes the royalty of pre-Enlightenment Europe look like broke ass street people by comparison.

It is merely a case of uncontrolled creep. Adverb and verb, adjective and noun, the malaise sweeps through the country infecting every institution, every politician, every bureaucrat, every home, every consciousness. It twists our legs like polio, bloats our stomachs like kwashiorkor, shuts us brains down like a catastrophic hemorrhage, until we’re on terminal life support, drooling into our sippy cups and mumbling sweet nothings to the matrons.

Nothing to be done about it. No one’s fault. Uncontrolled creep. Just slap a hash tag on it, and go about what remains of your business. 

- DM

W Cape govt has failed people: Holomisa

Cape Town - The Western Cape has become a battlefield for the powers that govern the province, UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said on Saturday.

“The people of this province find themselves in the middle of this battle for power,” Holomisa said in a speech prepared for delivery in Khayelitsha.

“You sit in a quagmire of misery whilst they sling mud at each other; completely forgetting about you.”

He was speaking at the Western Cape provincial congress of the United Democratic Movement.

He said those in power had failed to give people housing, education, safety, hospitals, clinics and jobs.

Holomisa also spoke about the country' electoral system.

“Our people should be allowed to directly elect their president,” he said.

Holomisa suggested that Cabinet be subjected to the scrutiny of parliament’s ethics committee before they are sworn in.

He encouraged people to put the UDM in power.

“We need to go out and build (the) UDM in all the corners of this province in preparation for 2014,” he said.

- Sapa

Mass urbanisation a development challenge

The search for a better life prompted South Africans to flock to urban centres - and there are now more people living in metropolitan areas than rural ones. And the trend is expected to continue.

“In the latest assessment of the numbers, about 60% of our people in South Africa, a 50 million population, already live in the urban areas. And the national development plan suggests that by 2030 or so, 70% I think, roughly, will be living in the urban areas,” Cooperative Governance Minister Lechesa Tsenoli explained.

But urbanisation has its pitfalls, exacerbating socio-economic challenges.

These include the increasing demand for housing sparked by an increase of informal settlements in urban areas.

Alarming levels of youth unemployment and infrastructure backlogs are also causes for concern. 

The problems can be aggravated by a lack of foresight.

“All those challenges are challenges that we have to address, those social issues, crime, the influx, disease and many other things that as a result of not properly planning,” Nomusa Dube, kwaZulu-Natal MEC for Cooperative Governance said.

Such problems are not unique to South Africa. Other parts of Africa, as well as Asia and South America, have experienced similar problems.

- enca

Parties react to 'damning' Nkandla report

Opposition parties have reacted to the publication of the key findings of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's provisional report into the multi-million rand upgrade to President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead, calling for the president to be held fully accountable.

The Mail & Guardian on Friday reported that Madonsela's provisional report found that Zuma received substantial personal benefits from the upgrade, despite government earlier stating that the upgrade was essential for the president's security.

Madonsela found a swimming pool, visitors' centre, amphitheatre, cattle kraal, marquee area, extensive paving, and new houses for relatives included in the upgrade at "enormous cost" to the taxpayer.

Madonsela's report recommended the president be called to account by Parliament for violating the executive ethics code on two counts - failing to protect state resources, and misleading Parliament for suggesting he and his family had paid for all non-security-related features.

Corruption scandal

The Democratic Alliance said the provisional findings contained in the report "are so damning that, if accurate, they would warrant the most severe sanction of President Jacob Zuma's conduct".

DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said in a statement on Friday that should the final report findings remain unchanged, she will consider tabling a motion to investigate Zuma in terms of Section 89 of the Constitution.

"This motion would result in a full investigation by Parliament into his conduct on two grounds, both contained in the Constitution, namely (a) being in violation of the Constitution or the law and (b) committing 'serious misconduct'.

"As more and more details surrounding Nkandlagate emerge, it is becoming increasingly clear that President Zuma is at the centre of one of the biggest corruption scandals in democratic South Africa. He must be accordingly held accountable by Parliament for his actions," Mazibuko stated.

Zuma misled public - UDM

In reaction to the news report, United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said Zuma had misled Parliament and the public, and it was not useful for Madonsela's final report to be handed to the legislature.

Holomisa said police had to conduct a parallel investigation to get to the bottom of what happened at Nkandla.

"One thing is clear; President Zuma has misled Parliament and the nation. Unfortunately this person is not accountable to the electorate, but to Luthuli House, and the African National Congress must take responsibility for the actions of their deployee.

"For us to take this matter to Parliament is not going to work and we, instead, must send the police, the Hawks and the auditors to get to the bottom of this mess," he said.

Cope leader Mosioua Lekota said it backed Madonsela's reported recommendation that Zuma be made to repay money spent at Nkandla.

"The Congress of the People welcomes and supports to the hilt the Public Protector’s directive that President Jacob Zuma pay back public funds which was spend on his private retreat at Nkandla," he said.

- Sapa and News24

Special Report: Revealed: The Nkandla files

M&G Special Report

Nkandla

Cape Town march set for Monday

Cape Town - It was almost a normal Friday morning in Cape Town , despite fears that protesters from informal settlements would defy a High Court interdict and go ahead with an illegal march on the CBD.

March organisers Loyiso Nkohla and Andile Lili have announced that they and their supporters will join Seskona People’s Rights, an organisation which apparently has a permit to march on Monday, in a “peaceful” march on the CBD.

At publication time a forum called “The Golden Triangle” - comprising the SA Police Service, the City of Cape Town and the applicant - where the adjudication of all applications to march is held - was still deliberating. But any decision could still be challenged in the courts, if any of the parties were unhappy.

Richard Bosman, the City’s Safety and Security director, said the traffic volume and commuter influx into town on Friday morning was normal.

“There were a few gatherings in the early hours, in Gugulethu and Khayelitsha. These were however, met with a strong police presence and the groups had dispersed by around 4am,” he said.

Police spokesman FC van Wyk said police were deployed in large numbers across the city, but there had been no action by the marchers.

Instead, police had used their presence in key areas to conduct additional anti-crime operations, including searching vehicles.

A particularly large contingent of law enforcement agencies’ members remained stationed at the Mew Way/N2 intersection on Friday and Bosman said their officers would remain in place all day.

However, after days of threats by the march’s leadership, most of the CBD’s informal traders did not open their stalls. St George’s Mall was eerily devoid of informal stalls and the bustle of tourists that accompanies the trading on a typical spring morning.

At Greenmarket Square on Friday morning, only three of the normal 200 stalls had opened shop.

Instead, police had transformed the square into a base for their tactical response team which was monitoring the CBD. Some of the officers and vehicles had come from as far afield as East London.

On the fringes of the square a group of frustrated traders gathered. They told the Cape Argus that they could not trade because their communal merchandise storerooms had been locked because of the strike threats.

“They have messed with us, saying that the march is on and next minute saying that the march is off. It’s a Friday, its the end of the month, it’s summer. I am going to lose more than a thousand rand because of this,” a trader, who asked not to be named, told the Cape Argus.

Michael Bagraim, of the Cape Chamber of Commerce, said most shops and restaurants in the city centre had opened.

“Yet, I have received reports of a slow start to business because many of the buying public - who usually make Friday a shopping day and who have recently received their month-end salaries - have stayed away from the CBD. These are losses to income that can never be regained,” he said.

He accused the march organisers of “treason” and “terrorism” for the successful fear-mongering they had indulged in over the past few days.

“It is a classic case of undermining democracy via empty threats. Unfortunately, the public and the municipality bought into this hysteria,” he said.

March organisers Loyiso Nkohla and Andile Lili held a joint press conference with Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the steps of St George’s cathedral on Friday morning.

Tutu congratulated the pair for having called off the march and said that church leaders would like to meet with the informal settlements leadership to discuss their grievances and to facilitate dialogues with government. The grievances relate to land and housing for informal settlement residents.

Tutu asked the march leaders Nkohla and Lili to apologise for the carnage and looting associated with another march earlier this month. The pair reluctantly agreed and apologised publicly.

- Cape Argus

Petition to impeach Zuma over Nkandla

Cape Town - A petition has been started to impeach President Jacob Zuma over his involvement in the Nkandla scandal.

The petition was put up on website Change.org. It was created by the Committee for the Impeachment of the President.

“The leaked public protector report on Nkandla proves that president Zuma lied to Parliament and personally benefitted from over R200m of public money [without proper tender].

“Further, he personally intervened, unlawfully, by appointing his own architect over those already employed by the department of public works.”

The committee called for the “immediate impeachment” of Zuma and urged that he be prosecuted. 

Zuma must be called to account - Madonsela

Social activist Zackie Achmat wrote on the website that he supported the petition and said he would help organise a demonstration on 13 February 2014.

The saga surrounding Zuma’s homestead hit the headlines again on Friday after the Mail & Guardian published parts of Thuli Madonsela’s provisional report into the upgrades.

Government has stated the upgrades were essential for Zuma's security, but Madonsela found a swimming pool, visitors' centre, amphitheatre, cattle kraal, marquee area, extensive paving, and new houses for relatives included in the upgrade at "enormous cost" to the taxpayer.

Madonsela's report recommended the president be called to account by Parliament for violating the executive ethics code on two counts.

These were for failing to protect state resources, and misleading Parliament for suggesting he and his family had paid for all non-security-related features.

One of the key allegations listed in the report stated that costs escalated from an initial R27m to R215m, with a further R31m in works outstanding.  

Twitter reaction

Twitter users on Friday expressed their dismay at the Mail & Guardian report while others made sarcastic comments about the Zuma homestead.

"How can we be expected to believe anything the President says? He must be called to task #Nkandla #nkandlagate," one Twitter user wrote.

"If the #ANC want my vote next year then hold #Zuma accountable now and prove you the party of old. #Nkandla#2014elections #nothappening," said another.

A Telkom parody profile tweeted: "Hm, just learnt that you can also pay your etolls by depositing money into this account: JZ NKANDLA TRUST, STD BANK, Acc No. #000001."

Another said: "Everyone should go to #Nkandla on 27 April - 1 May and have a commemorative jol there. Amandla awethu."

"Where do we get the number for Zuma's anti-corrpution hotline? Need to report him #Nkandla #nkandlagate," said another.  - News24 and Sapa

- News24

Now you decide about Nkandla

The M&G's revelations explain why ministers and their servants in Parliament were so concerned about Thuli Madonsela's provisional Nkandla report.

The Mail & Guardian on Friday revealed key findings of the public protector on the R215-million "security upgrade" at President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead – and we fully expect a howl of protest over our disclosures. Thuli Madonsela's report is, after all, a provisional one that has not yet been run past the affected parties.

We make no apologies. All the evidence points to a systematic attempt by the government to shield disclosures about the scandal from public view, and there are good reasons for fearing that the security ministers who tried to interdict Madonsela earlier this month may be planning further litigation to block its release.

In his affidavit in that case, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa warned that, as Madonsela is not a security expert, "it will be argued at an appropriate time, when the need arises", that she cannot decide what constitutes a security breach. He added, ominously, that if she "arrogates to herself that power to determine whether or not there is a breach of security … I am advised that she will in law be acting ultra vires [beyond her powers]".

Madonsela is on record as saying that nothing in her report poses a threat to the president's security, and we are satisfied that none of our disclosures has implications for the safety of the first citizen.

The decision to publish has been influenced by official attempts to spin and sanitise the findings, in a context where ordinary South Africans are denied access to them and cannot form their own opinion. In a clear attempt to protect the president, Parliament's joint standing committee on intelligence has thrown up a dense smokescreen of justifications for Zuma, invoking the government's task team report – which, of course, remains classified.

Our duty is to our readers and to the broader South African public – and we are determined to ensure that they have the benefit of the unvarnished truth.

Our exposé explains why the ministers and their servants in Parliament are so concerned – contrary to earlier claims, Madonsela's provisional report is damaging to Zuma. It finds that he and his family received undue benefits and recommends that he reimburse the state. It argues that he misled Parliament. And it underscores his indirect intervention in the scope and cost of the Nkandla upgrade by inveigling his own architect, builders and others into the official state-funded upgrade.

It is worth detailing the pattern of official obstruction. On alleged security grounds, the public works department initially refused even to reveal the contract prices. Its response to amaBhungane's application under access to information law was to invoke security legislation and give nothing, until the investigative centre forced its hand through litigation.

Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi has consistently refused to release the task team report into spending at Nkandla, which he commissioned after the scandal broke last year. In addition, the authorities have run interference on Madonsela's research. She has complained that government ministers tried to deter her by claiming her investigation duplicated those of the auditor general and the Special Investigating Unit, when no such investigations were done. Her provisional report contains further details of official obstruction, including the refusal to allow her to copy documents and the exclusion of her investigators from important meetings.

With an election looming, it is conceivable that the government will do everything in its power to keep Madonsela's report under wraps. As a public interest newspaper, it is the M&G's duty to ensure that does not happen.

- M&G

Zuma benefited from Nkandla works - report

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has found that President Jacob Zuma received extensive personal benefits from the upgrade to his Nkandla home and should refund the state, the Mail & Guardian reported on Friday.

The newspaper was citing Madonsela's provisional report into the renovations at the president's private homestead in KwaZulu-Natal and drew a rebuke from her office, pointing out that it was illegal to publish such reports.

"It violates section 7(2) of the Public Protector Act 23, 1994," her spokeswoman Kgalalelo Masibi said in a statement.

"As a rule, we do not comment on whatever purports to be a provisional report of the public protector as those are not reports of the public protector."

In an editorial, the Mail & Guardian said it had expected fullsome criticism for its decision to run the report but did so nonetheless because it believed there was a risk government would resort to further court action to stop Madonsela's final report into "Nkandlagate" from seeing the light.

Its two-page article cited Madonsela recommending in the provisional report that Zuma be called to account for failing to safeguard state resources and for misleading Parliament.

The president has repeatedly told the legislature that he and his family had paid for all work at Nkandla that was not related to security improvements at the estate.

Government has likewise insisted that the upgrades were essential for Zuma's security, but Madonsela found a swimming pool, visitors' centre, amphitheatre, cattle kraal, marquee area, extensive paving, and new houses for relatives included in the upgrade at "enormous cost" to the taxpayer.

Madonsela's report recommended that he must repay a "reasonable" amount of the money spent to the state, the Mail & Guardian said.

One of the key allegations listed in the report stated that costs escalated from an initial R27 million to R215m, with a further R31m in works outstanding.

The newspaper said documents dating from three years ago complained about the rising cost of the project, but it continued to escalate after Zuma's private architect was imposed as a "principal agent" on the project by the president.

It quoted Madonsela as finding in her report that this amounted to "political interference" by the president.

The newspaper said its report was based not only on Madonsela's provisional report but also on more than 12,000 pages of documents it forced the public works department to release using access-to-information legislation.

Madonsela has been locked in a tense standoff with ministers of Cabinet's security cluster, who insist there is a danger her findings will result in security arrangements becoming public and compromise the president's security.

The Mail & Guardian recalled that Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa had stated that Madonsela was not qualified to decide whether the information she brought to light might constitute a security breach, and would exceed her powers if she sought to do so.

At a briefing last week, Mthethwa and his fellow ministers in the security cluster had left open the door for further litigation against Madonsela and also reiterated that she should hand her final report to Parliament.

Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said if Madonsela's final report matched what had been reported, her party would table a motion asking Parliament to investigate the president.

"As more and more details surrounding Nkandlagate emerge, it is becoming increasingly clear that President Zuma is at the centre of one of the biggest corruption scandals in democratic South Africa. He must be accordingly held accountable by Parliament for his actions."

But United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said Zuma had misled Parliament and the public, and it was not useful for Madonsela's final report to be handed to the legislature.

Holomisa said police had to conduct a parallel investigation to get to the bottom of what happened at Nkandla.

"One thing is clear; President Zuma has misled Parliament and the nation. Unfortunately this person is not accountable to the electorate, but to Luthuli House, and the African National Congress must take responsibility for the actions of their deployee.

"For us to take this matter to Parliament is not going to work and we, instead, must send the police, the Hawks and the auditors to get to the bottom of this mess," he said.

Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota said it backed Madonsela's reported recommendation that Zuma be made to repay money spent at Nkandla.

"The Congress of the People welcomes and supports to the hilt the Public Protector’s directive that President Jacob Zuma pay back public funds which was spend on his private retreat at Nkandla," he said.

- Sapa

Cape march called off, but…

Cape Town - The planned march to Western Cape Premier Helen Zille’s office in central Cape Town on Friday was hit by a double-whammy on Thursday night: the Western Cape High Court granted the city an interdict banning the march, and the leaders called it off.

But authorities were taking no chances – before the court ruling and the cancellation, they announced that at least 500 law enforcement officers – on foot, in patrol cars, in helicopters and on horseback – would be deployed in anticipation of the protest.

Some businesses and informal traders were taking no chances, either.

The Taj hotel in St George’s Mall said it warned guests leaving for tours or heading for the airport to leave before 11am, while informal traders said they would stay away.

After a heated meeting with community members in the Blue Hall in Site C, Khayelitsha, the leaders said they would not proceed until they had a permit to march.

“There will be no march,” said former ANC councillor Andile Lili. “We are planning to go to court and make an appeal and challenge the city.”

Lili said the decision to stop the march was made by all parties.

“The decision was made collectively because marching without permits won't be good for us. The city is trying to portray us as criminals.”

Cancelling was not an act of cowardice but a way of challenging the city.

The organisers said they would go to court.

Community members at the meeting told the Cape Argus that they were disappointed.

Vuyolwethu Mqhada said: “We are not happy about this because we were prepared to go to Zille's office without the permits.”

Luzuko Xhuma was also unhappy. “I wish the march would have gone through because service delivery is a huge problem in Cape Town,” he said.

Lili and suspended councilor Loyiso Nkohla, who head the Cape Town Informal Settlement Leaders organisation, would not have taken part in any case – they were arrested for dumping faeces at Cape Town International Airport in June and taking part in an illegal gathering would be a breach of their bail conditions.

The march was to protest against a shortage of housing and poor services. Last month’s protest outside the provincial legislature turned sour when a group broke away, looting stalls in St George’s Mall and Greenmarket Square, smashing windows and causing mayhem.

This prompted the city to refuse to issue a permit for Friday’s march and, to underline the strength of their opposition, to apply for and obtain a court interdict banning the march.

But until Thursday night the organisers were defiantly claiming the march would go ahead, and warning shops and stall-holders to close if they wanted to protect their property.

In response a massive police operation had been planned. A total of 500 law enforcers are being deployed, with some reportedly being brought in from as far afield as Pretoria.

Police, intelligence services, justice and other law enforcement role-players thrashed out a joint operational plan focused on all modes of transport into the city to keep the public safe.

And the police’s air wing will monitor the situation from above.

Western Cape police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Arno Lamoer, said there would be heavy police deployments in the CBD as well as areas of congregation for the marchers.

Emergency medical staff were warned to be on high alert.

The Central City Improvement District also warned traders, tourists and businesses to exercise caution today.

Many informal traders said they would heed the call. Mahamad Ahmad Farah, a trader in St George’s Mall who lost more than R25 000 in merchandise and cash when looters attacked him, said he would “take a holiday” on Friday.

“I will lose a lot of money for the day taken off work, but it is not worth the risk,” he said.

A similar feeling existed among many traders at nearby Greenmarket Square, where the Traders’ Committee estimated that more than 50 percent of the stalls would not open. Yet, around 80 stall-owners have vowed to remain and to protect themselves if the need arises.

“Yes, we are prepared,” said Mor Fall, a Senegalese trader at the square for 15 years and one of the seven committee members. “We all stand together and the committee is capable of organising mutual protection. We did it quite successfully last time, and this time we are much more prepared.”

He bemoaned the incapacity of the police last month. “We hope that the police will be better prepared this time. Yet, we can look out for ourselves.” Pointing to one of the metal bars that hold up his stall’s gazebo, he added: “This is our police when the police fail.”

Michael Bagraim, of the Cape Chamber of Commerce, said: “The intimidation coming from the marchers verges on terrorism and should not be tolerated.”

- Cape Argus

We had to publish Nkandla report - M&G

In an editorial, the Mail & Guardian said it had expected fullsome criticism for its decision to run Public Protector Thuli Madonsela Public’s report into President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead but did so nonetheless because it believed there was a risk government would resort to further court action to stop Madonsela's final report into “Nkandlagate” from seeing the light.

Its two-page article cited Madonsela recommending in the provisional report that Zuma be called to account for failing to safeguard state resources and for misleading Parliament.

The president has repeatedly told the legislature that he and his family had paid for all work at Nkandla that was not related to security improvements at the estate.

Government has likewise insisted that the upgrades were essential for Zuma's security, but Madonsela found a swimming pool, visitors' centre, amphitheatre, cattle kraal, marquee area, extensive paving, and new houses for relatives included in the upgrade at “enormous cost” to the taxpayer.

Madonsela's report recommended that he must repay a “reasonable” amount of the money spent to the state, the Mail & Guardian said.

One of the key allegations listed in the report stated that costs escalated from an initial R27 million to R215m, with a further R31m in works outstanding.

The newspaper said documents dating from three years ago complained about the rising cost of the project, but it continued to escalate after Zuma's private architect was imposed as a “principal agent” on the project by the president.

It quoted Madonsela as finding in her report that this amounted to “political interference” by the president.

The newspaper said its report was based not only on Madonsela's provisional report but also on more than 12 000 pages of documents it forced the public works department to release using access-to-information legislation.

Madonsela has been locked in a tense standoff with ministers of Cabinet's security cluster, who insist there is a danger her findings will result in security arrangements becoming public and compromise the president's security.

The Mail & Guardian recalled that Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa had stated that Madonsela was not qualified to decide whether the information she brought to light might constitute a security breach, and would exceed her powers if she sought to do so.

At a briefing last week, Mthethwa and his fellow ministers in the security cluster had left open the door for further litigation against Madonsela and also reiterated that she should hand her final report to Parliament.

Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said if Madonsela's final report matched what had been reported, her party would table a motion asking Parliament to investigate the president.

“As more and more details surrounding Nkandlagate emerge, it is becoming increasingly clear that President Zuma is at the centre of one of the biggest corruption scandals in democratic South Africa. He must be accordingly held accountable by Parliament for his actions.”

But United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said Zuma had misled Parliament and the public, and it was not useful for Madonsela's final report to be handed to the legislature.

Holomisa said police had to conduct a parallel investigation to get to the bottom of what happened at Nkandla.

“One thing is clear; President Zuma has misled Parliament and the nation. Unfortunately this person is not accountable to the electorate, but to Luthuli House, and the African National Congress must take responsibility for the actions of their deployee.

“For us to take this matter to Parliament is not going to work and we, instead, must send the police, the Hawks and the auditors to get to the bottom of this mess,” he said.

Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota said it backed Madonsela's reported recommendation that Zuma be made to repay money spent at Nkandla.

“The Congress of the People welcomes and supports to the hilt the Public Protector's directive that President Jacob Zuma pay back public funds which was spend on his private retreat at Nkandla,” he said.

- Sapa

Cape Town ready for illegal marchers

Cape Town - Cape Town is bracing itself for an illegal march in the city on Friday, Western Cape police said.

“There will be heavy police deployments in the CBD as well as areas of congregation for the marchers,” police spokesman Tembinkosi Kinana said on Thursday.

“The deployment will comprise members of public order policing (POP), metro police, traffic officials, law enforcement and emergency officials.”

Police on horseback would monitor the protest as well.

“Members of railway police will also be on high alert and deployed in and around train station precincts,” said Kinana.

“The City of Cape Town's traffic officials with the SAPS Flying Squad will be deployed on the city's highways and byways.”

Kinana said air support would be deplored if required.

He warned that protesters breaking the law would be arrested.

On Wednesday, Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille said the city had filed for a court order to try to stop the protest.

“A golden triangle meeting, which incorporates the SA Police Service, did not approve their application due to credible evidence received under oath indicating that such a gathering could result in a serious disruption to vehicular and pedestrian traffic; injury to persons; and possible damage to property,” she said on Wednesday.

“Law enforcement authorities have also established there are serious threats of unprecedented levels of violence erupting in the event that the march takes place.”

De Lille said she did not want to see a repetition of disorder last month when protesters claiming to be part of a service delivery demonstration looted shops and vendors' stalls, and damaged property in central Cape Town.

- Sapa

Cape township residents to march for services

Last-minute bid to stop march

Cape Town - The City of Cape Town is braced for “unprecedented levels of violence” in the central city should a planned but illegal march of thousands take place on Friday.

Organisers of the march on the provincial legislature – in protest against poor services and housing – have reportedly been mobilising people from as far afield as Paarl and Stellenbosch.

Cape Town Informal Settlements Leaders say they want to prevent people from going to work by blockading transport hubs, and want to bring thousands of people into the CBD for a three-day sit-in, starting on Friday.

This information was handed to Western Cape Premier Helen Zille by State Security which has been gathering intelligence on the march organisers’ mobilisation process for weeks.

It is also the first indication that reports of a huge number of people descending on the city centre on Friday are not empty threats.

“There is every indication, judging by this intelligence, that the march will be violent,” said Zak Mbhele, Zille’s spokesman. “The premier has warned mayor Patricia de Lille and has handed this intelligence to (the mayor’s) office as well as to the police.”

The city has denied the protest organisers a march permit, and late on Wednesday the city’s lawyers applied for an urgent interdict in the Western Cape High Court to stop the protest.

The court is expected to rule on Thursday.

Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille tweeted: “The city is taking the threats seriously and we are seeking an urgent interdict.”

De Lille said the march organisers had been refused permission to hold the protest, after the authorities, who included the police, “did not approve their application due to credible evidence received under oath indicating that such a gathering could result in a serious disruption to vehicular and pedestrian traffic; injury to persons; and possible damage to property”.

De Lille said the city had become aware of “serious threats of unprecedented levels of violence” should the march take place. “The organisers of this illegal protest have vowed to proceed with the demonstration despite the fact they have not obtained a permit as required by the National Gatherings Act… the city has pursued the interdict as a last resort to avoid a repeat of the violent incidents that unfolded during a protest organised by the same group a few weeks ago.”

This came just hours after a meeting on Wednesday, between the march organisers and Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela, broke down after running nearly two-and-a-half hours over time. Madikizela confirmed that the parties were no closer to reaching a consensus on the group’s “vague” demands.

Last month’s protests, which deteriorated into rioting and looting, followed the presentation of a memo to Madikizela calling for him to make government land available for housing, and to allocate sites.

The protesters, who hail from informal settlements and are being organised by former city councillor Andile Lili and suspended councillor Loyiso Nkohla, claim that Madikizela has failed to respond to their demands.

Nkohla and Lili gained notoriety for orchestrating a number of protests over poor sanitation which have included the dumping of raw sewage at government buildings and on public roads.

After receiving the memo last month, Madikizela said he acknowledged the “legitimate concerns” of people who did not have houses. In a statement, he said that he had been willing to engage on these grievances and that he did in fact respond to the memorandum. But the MEC also complained about the “vagueness” of the memorandum.

Wednesday’s meeting was intended to bring the MEC and the march organisers closer together. The Human Settlements Department made a presentation to show what it had done in terms of housing delivery over the past four years.

“In spite of the many challenges we face, including ongoing internal community conflict, limited land for relocation, and ongoing contestation for houses, the department has used its entire budget each year since 2009 to deliver over 110 000 housing opportunities in order to cater for the different housing needs that exist,” Madikizela said.

Nkohla, who represented Cape Town Informal Settlements Leaders at the meeting, dismissed Madikizela’s presentation. He said that it was focused on the past and did not address some of the protesters’ key concerns about the future of housing and land allocation. Friday’s march, he said, would go ahead.

There seems to be confusion over how the march organisers plan to transport thousands of supporters into the CBD. At last month’s march, which was legal, Metrorail made a special concession for the 6 000 protesters to travel at lower tariffs.

But Metrorail chief executive Mthuthuzeli Swartz said on Wednesday: “Unlike before, we have not had any application for a similar concession for Friday. There will not be any concession for the marchers.”

However, Sithembele Majova, spokesman for Cape Town Informal Settlements Leaders, said Friday’s marchers would come to town by train.

“Metrorail is used by us poor people and that’s why we are demanding that they transport us.”

Meanwhile law enforcement agencies have declined to divulge their plans for containing the march.

Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said the police were prepared to “act decisively” to prevent criminality.

JP Smith, mayoral committee member for safety and security, said contingency plans were in place to ensure that the marchers did not reach the CBD.

Shop owners and stallholders have been warned to close up on Friday to avoid possible looting.

“We are advising all shops to close down because we don’t want to be held accountable when it comes to looting,”said Sibusiso Zonke, one of the protest organisers.

During last month’s protest march to the provincial legislature, a breakaway group of protesters ran down St George’s Mall and into Greenmarket Square and Adderley Street, smashing windows and looting stalls.

The protest organisers claimed opportunistic outsiders were responsible.

Xolani Dwyili, another organiser, said: “I feel sorry for their loss, but Premier Helen Zille should be held accountable for that. Our marchers spent the whole day seated at the legislature’s office and did not leave.”

Dwyili said it would be better if shops and stalls closed on Friday and then no looting could take place. “The ball is in their court, but we have advised them,” he said.

Gloria Luabeya, who sells bags and African crafts in St George’s Mall, said her and her sister’s stalls had been robbed of goods worth R25 000.

“We are going to close because last time they took stuff; we were so scared – we feared for our lives. We won’t take that risk again.”

Snack stall owner Ishmael Hussain-Sharief said he would close shop only if he felt threatened. “The police have not given us any letters to close, but if we do see (protesters) we will close,” he said.

daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

Who is playing the fool on Nkandla?

Zuma didn’t know the cost of the upgrades, we are told. And that’s supposed to make us feel better? asks Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya.

Pretoria - There is a line much loved by both the leadership and the rank and file of the governing party: the masses cannot be fooled.

I have been uneasy with this line for a long time.

At face value, it seems patently false. There is just too much evidence of the masses being fooled around the world in many different areas of life.

Religious cults, pyramid schemes and popular fascist regimes that led people to their ruin all tell the tale of masses being spectacularly fooled.

White South Africans voted for the racist National Party government in ever-increasing majorities in election after election.

My concern with the line as repeated by the ANC is whether they honestly believe the masses cannot be fooled, or are they merely repeating it because it is part of struggle-era vocabulary – like calling certain systems by names that refer to what a farmer is called in Afrikaans.

I wonder how the ANC leadership reconciles its explanation for how more than R200 million got to be spent on President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla home with its belief that the masses cannot be fooled.

The long and short of the explanation is that the president was duped like all of us by greedy contractors who inflated the costs of the project.

Now I do not know about you, dear reader, but if I arrived at my house and found people digging trenches around my yard and redecorating my furniture and my dog kennel, I would at the very least ask them why they were doing so.

Being a man of modest means, I would ask them how much what they were doing would cost me.

I do not know how those of immodest means behave in a situation like this.

I know one or two people I could confidently call wealthy who count the cost of everything they do; I suppose that is how they got wealthy.

If the answer I got was, “Someone else will pay and you will be liable for only 5 percent of the cost”, I would surely ask how much in rands and cents that 5 percent amounted to so that I could start budgeting.

Then again, I am a mere journalist and not a head of state.

Perhaps presidents are wealthy enough always to have 5 percent of whatever they might be quoted, even if that happens to be R10m as is the case with the Nkandla upgrade.

The ANC leadership and cluster ministers would have us believe that the president had no idea of what the 5 percent he was liable to pay amounted to.

Again I ask, do they really believe the masses cannot be fooled?

It has been said before (and denied) that the president does not read the things he is supposed to read.

I really hope that in this case he would read the memo explaining why strange men were digging trenches around his yard and kraal and then decided if he approved of everything that was being done in his name.

It is after all his house, his protection, and his cattle that the state said it was concerned about.

Suppose the president was honestly not aware of what the upgrade would cost him because he was busy with the more pressing business of running a country.

If it is the ministers’ story that the president did not know how much it would cost him, then they are not serving their boss well.

They are suggesting that the head of state was indifferent or ignorant about what was going on in his own home, including how much all the work would cost him.

I wonder how characterising the president in the manner that the ministers are implying can arouse in citizens a wave of respect for him.

One has to ask how we, as a nation, are supposed to trust a man who is negligent or indifferent about his own financial household’s priorities with the nation’s.

It is not good enough to say you did not know because you were solving political problems in Central African Republic or the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

If you are not interested in why men are digging trenches in your own yard, how can you care about far more complex issues such as whether to support a UN resolution on bombing Libya?

I have seen, read and heard enough to believe that the masses can be fooled.

I have also realised that even as they are fooled, there comes a time when even they realise that they have been had and when they do, there is no telling how they react to being taken for a ride.

* Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya is executive editor of Pretoria News.

- Pretoria News

‘Why I’m joining march in Cape Town’

Cape Town - Her 20-year-old daughter died in a shack fire last year and the thought of suffering a similar fate is Nosakho Sigwelo’s worst nightmare.

Sigwelo, 53, has lived in a shack for 23 years.

“When my daughter died, the fire brigade said the fire was too strong and they couldn’t rescue her.”

Sigwelo believes that at her age she should have a proper house.

This is why Sigwelo plans to march to the Western Cape provincial legislature on Friday in a protest organised by the Cape Town Informal Settlements Organisation. She hopes Premier Helen Zille responds to the organisation’s request.

Her two-roomed shack in Site C, Khayelitsha, where she lives with her seven children, is not well built.

There are gaps between the corrugated roof sheeting and the wall where sand blows in, and there is a hole in the roof that leaks when it rains.

The floor has holes where rats get in.

“I can’t relax while living here,” said Sigwelo.

She awakes at 7am to begin her chores.

“The first thing I do is clean the potta-potta toilet because it leaves the house with a stench. It sometimes spills, so I then need to wipe the spilt faeces with newspapers.”

Although the City of Cape Town had promised the portable loo would be collected daily, several days’ worth accumulated outside the shacks and neighbours threw the waste outside each other’s yards.

“You wake up and you see poo outside your home, dirty baby nappies. I have to clean it.”

Sigwelo’s chores include sweeping out the sand every half-hour and ensuring all food is enclosed in containers where the rats can’t reach it.

She has been treated for TB and says her living conditions have made her ill many times.

“Having a house would allow me to relax.

“I won’t have to wake up and clean human waste and most important a house would mean I could die peacefully. I don’t sleep well. I keep thinking of how my daughter died.”

Sigwelo said she hoped to confront Zille at the provincial legislature on Friday.

“I want to take the potta-potta, sit on it and then ask the premier how she would feel if she had to do this.”

zodidi.dano@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus