Zuma had to know everything about Nkandla
7 January 2016
Congress of the People believes that President Zuma had to have known everything that happened at Nkandla.
The wild expansion of its scope and the runaway costs as a result of unrestrained price-gouging by contractors indicate that neither the Ministers nor the relevant Departments had any real control over the project. All they were required to do was to hurry it along lest its discovery halted it midway.
The intention of the President was clear. He wanted the state to create a palace for him. He would throw money and favours to all around him to buy their support for the prize he wanted to secure for himself. He calculated correctly on that. Respectable men and women in the ANC did strange contortions of the facts to stand by him with a straight face and accept that Zuma did not ask for the development and that he was therefore not liable to pay back anything whatsoever. This was monstrous arrogance on their part.
In the normal course of events Ministers and Departmental heads would have kept a beady eye on expenditure to keep on the right side of the Auditor General. They would have exercised a lot more responsibility. They would have baulked at an expenditure of even R50 million. They allowed things to get completely out of control because boss man wanted it that way. They were therefore relieved to give over control to a higher authority and to let the expenditure soar into the stratosphere. There is no doubt that they were extremely nervous but they knew for certain that they would be neither quizzed nor fired. It was the President’s homestead and he was free to pull all the strings he wanted to so that he could get what he wanted.