South African president Jacob Zuma has sparked outrage spending £17.5 million to upgrade his rural family home while about 13 million people survive on less than £1 a day, and two million have no access to a toilet.
According to reports excessive works to Zuma home in the village of Nkandla – which include the construction of 31 new houses, an underground bunker accessed by lifts and a helipad – will cost almost as much as the £19 million Britain send to South Africa in annual aid.
The costly upgrade includes Astroturf sports fields and tennis courts, a gymnasium and state-of-the art security systems, including fingerprint-controlled access pads. And nearby roads have benefited from a further £40 million of improvements.
Originally the cost of the project, which began two years ago, had a £500,000 budget but it has since skyrocketed. South African taxpayers are paying for this through taxes, although Zuma, a polygamist with four wives and at least 20 children, apparently contributing £700,000 of his own money – a stretch on his annual £185,000 salary.
He allegedly also receives £1.2million in ‘spousal support’ for his wives and only pays n rent of £560 on the tribally owned plot in the Zululand hills where his mansion sits.
When African journalists revealed the astronomical cost of the work, Zuma’s ministers turned on the whistle-blowers, saying that revealing the details of ‘top secret’ documents was illegal.
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