Nkandla: The food chain and money trail spreads beyond the presidential precinct

The Cape Afrikaans morning daily Die Burger ran a lead story on Tuesday headlined “Did Nhleko lie about Nkandla?” The news report essentially focused on 21 “police chalets” (there are 14 according to Minister of Public Works Thulas Nxesi) built at Nkandla at the cost of either R135-million (according to Nhleko) or R17-million (according to the Nkandla Report) or R23.4-million (according to the public protector). Pick a number and let's move on.

While the media have been prevented from accompanying MPs on Wednesday's visit, a team from the newspaper's sister publication Beeld headed off to do some of their own sleuthing. It was the precise distance between the police chalets, located on the western side of Nxamalala (as the president's home village is named) and President Jacob Zuma's home within in the complex that appeared to be at issue. While Nhleko had said the chalets were 1.1km from Zuma's home, which somehow rendered them “unsuitable” (being too far in the case of an emergency we take it), the journalists physically paced out the distance at only 301 metres.

Public Works and the police have continuously justified the expenditure on the security village and the need for on-site accommodation as personnel needed to be able to respond swiftly in case of a threat to No 1's security and comfort. It is a justification that now appears to have been contradicted by Nhleko. So pick an excuse and let's move on.

The preoccupation with just how many millions were spent or the exact distances between the president's home and his security detail is all just distraction, however. The truth is the real distance between the president and his security detail is about 50km – which is how far Nxamalala is from Eshowe (a 30-minute drive at most doing 100km but probably about 20 with a blue light and siren blaring).

It is in this small KwaZulu-Natal town, nestling in a fertile forest region, that the president's body guards, security detail, his medical team as well as various family members and guests have been accommodated for years now. This, of course, at an additional cost of millions to taxpayers and which has not been tallied up and included in the already shamefully bloated figures that it appears that some in ruling party hope, with constant repetition and the shifting around of numerals, will no longer prove eye watering.

In 2014 the Daily Maverick visited Nxamalala and Eshowe and spoke to various owners of guest houses who confirmed that the president's bodyguards and other members of his entourage seldom stayed at his home. In December 2013 not a single bed was available in any of the 17 guest houses in the town as the president, his family, relatives and his entourage descended on the region for the annual Christmas break.

In 2012 Minister Nxesi, arguing in favour of the expenditure on the “police chalets” said “To base them themselves [the president's security] at the nearest town, Eshowe, was impractical. Parking for security vehicles would also be needed”.

The Daily Maverick has seen vouchers issued by the Office of the President via the government's travel agency Travel with Flair for rooms charging up to R1,200 a night. The fee included meals which were often, according to one guest house owner, left uneaten as staff preferred to dine out at local taverns. Food cooked for dinner often had to be discarded or given away as staff seldom ate in. The guest house owner said monthly turnover was around R100,000, which included also hosting various visitors to the No 1, including premiers and other government officials.

The president's medical team at the time were also often accommodated at another luxury guest house a short walk from the one where bodyguards bedded down.

One guest house owner also told us “often bookings get cancelled at the last minute when the president’s movements change but I still get paid”.

In March this year City Press followed up on the story and found that the president's bodyguards were still being accommodated at Eshowe and that in December last year travel agents for the Presidential Protection Services had block-booked at least one guesthouse from December 15 to January 1 but hadn't made use of six of the reserved rooms (this time at R650 a night) for the entire period.

City Press also found that while the use of guesthouses in Eshowe had diminished somewhat because of the “outcry” in relation to the exorbitant spending on the president's home, in September guests attending the wedding ceremony of his nephew, Khulubuse Zuma to Swazi Princess Fikiswa Dlamini at the president's home were accommodated in Eshowe.

Nhleko on Tuesday, ahead of the site visit by MPs, presented his Nkandla Report to a special parliamentary committee sitting in KwaZulu-Natal and batted away a range of questions from opposition MPs.

In May Nhleko presented his report complete with videos and soundtracks justifying expenditure on the “fire pool”, kraals and various other architectural and security accoutrements and exonerating Zuma completely from having to pay back anything.

One of the points he raised on Tuesday was the actual cost of the renovations and upgrades to the president's home.

“I don't know where the R246-million comes from and I can only talk about figures with a point of reference to issues of authority,” he said.

This is, in fact, the amount arrived at in the public protector's report taking into account the estimated cost of completing “phase three” of the Nkandla project. It would be interesting to calculate the additional amount considering the wasted expenditure on guesthouses over a period of several years.

Meanwhile opposition parties have said they would refuse to “rubber stamp” Nhleko's report but the ruling party could still use its majority to have it adopted.

There is growing disquiet within the ruling party about the damage being exacted on the its reputation because of Nkandla, and the president's refusal to accept any personal responsibility.

No amount of justification - using experts on traditional culture, explaining the remarkable invention of the fire pool, pointing fingers and shifting the blame or responsibility from “greedy” consultants and suppliers who overcharged - is going to make Nkandla or the growing call for the president to at least pay back some of the money go away.

Unless a solution is found it will haunt the ANC for years to come. The more those who shield the president, forcibly removing those who question from the country's Parliament, or fiddling with numerals or distances, the deeper the hole.

We end, once again, with our favourite quote from Marx. Not Karl, Groucho.

“Who you gonna believe? Me or your eyes?” DM

Photo: Nkandla's security compound. (Marianne Thamm)