Zuma hides how much taxmoney has been spent on his Nkandla legal fees
27 October 2016
The Presidency has flatly refused to tell the people of South Africa how much money government has spent on President Zuma’s legal fees in relation to the litigation following the infamous upgrades at President Zuma’s private residence at Nkandla.
In a flippant and evasive response to a written question, the Presidency referred us to the Presidency’s final statements, which“allow the grouping of some transactions and therefore do not allow for identification of transactions that can be related to this question”.
Essentially the Presidency said that the cost of the President’s legal fees – which the taxpayer is funding - can be buried in vague and bureaucratic line items in financial statements, and be hidden from the public.
This is absolutely unacceptable. I have therefore today written to Cyril Ramaphosa, as Leader of Government Business, asking him to take this matter up with the Presidency as a matter of urgency, in order to ensure this question is answered and that the Presidency provides this information to Parliament and to the South African public.