CAPE TOWN — The government spent R7.9m to relocate four households neighbouring on President Jacob Zuma’s private Nkandla residence, as they were within a 50m radius, said Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi.
In reply to a parliamentary question from the Democratic Alliance (DA), Mr Nxesi said similar security assessments done on the households of former presidents Nelson Mandela, Kgalema Motlanthe and Thabo Mbeki had indicated that such removals were not necessary.
The news of the cost of the four removals comes as Parliament’s multiparty ad hoc committee to consider Mr Zuma’s response to the Public Protector’s report on the R246m security upgrades to his Nkandla homestead prepares for its first meeting this week. The committee will have to submit a report to Parliament by April 30.
Although the Nkandla security upgrades have been done since 2009, it was only when the security cluster of ministers released its report in December that it emerged that several households had been relocated. The probe could not put a number on the households.
Mr Nxesi’s parliamentary reply did not state where the households had been moved to.
DA MP Anchen Dreyer said on Sunday Mr Nxesi’s answer and the fact that four households were moved created further suspicion around the real intention behind the costly relocation. "Indeed, how can it be a security threat in one instance, but not in another?" she asked.
Public Protector Thuli Madonsela said in her report on the security upgrades done at taxpayer expense to Mr Zuma’s residence that she could not "find any authority or legitimate reason for classifying the relocation of the households at state expense as a security measure".
Ms Dreyer said her party would submit further parliamentary questions at the next available opportunity to get more details on the "security" concerns that warranted the removal of families at the public’s expense.
- BDLive
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