INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homeIf President Zuma had been transparent about the Nkandla upgrades two years ago he would have nipped the controversy in the bud, writes Jovial Rantao
Just close your eyes for a second and imagine the following scene. The sky above Nkandla is a dazzle of blue, with a few smatterings of cloud.
It’s a perfect summer’s day and villagers in this neighbourhood go about their daily chores.
As the rooster’s call echoes through the valley, a woman walks past with a stack of neatly packed firewood on her head. Boys laugh as they enjoy a kick-about after breakfast.
It’s a good day in Nkandla.
Just after 9am, several cars, travelling on the newly-built tarred road, make their way to the household of President Jacob Zuma. It’s the media contingent heading for the presidential private homestead. As the vans from television networks, with satellite dishes atop, whizz past, villagers of Nkandla don’t even bat an eyelid. They have become accustomed to their little nondescript place of abode being in the news.
It all started on that fateful day when one of their own became president of South Africa. Then big things started to happen. The Zuma household grew, with new structures added on. A new tarred road, the R561, was built, but officials would have us believe that it was all a coincidence that the road went past the president’s private home.
Anyway, on this beautiful day, this is the road used by the country’s media in response to a call from the president. And when the president calls, the media responds.
Driven by the principle that he has nothing to hide, Zuma has called a press conference to reply to the many questions being asked about his private abode, a homestead that has become his and the villagers’ pride and joy.
He has had enough of “home girl” Lindiwe Mazibuko, leader of the DA in Parliament, trying to portray that he has something to hide in relation to the taxpayers’ money spent on the Nkandla estate.
The president has called the press conference because the replies he provided to questions tabled in Parliament by the DA and other parties did not seem sufficient.
On arrival at the Zuma homestead, the media is greeted by a team of police officers, dressed in combat gear and heavily armed. They are asked for their identification before sniffer dogs go through each bag and vehicle. As soon as they go through the security check, the reporters are offered welcome drinks – most welcome, because Nkandla temperatures can hit 35°C on a good summer’s day.
The media are then ushered into a large dining room especially set up for the press conference.
They are greeted by the grey-haired former cabinet minister, Mac Maharaj, announcing that the president will arrive in five minutes. And in five minutes, bang on time, he emerges, with his four wives in tow. He shakes hands with a few journalists, flashes his trademark smile as his famous giggle echoes through the room.
Zuma makes his way to the table and he and his entourage take their seats. The four wives – two on each side – sit supportively next to their husband and he begins to speak.
“I thought I should call this media briefing because I should for once and for all respond to the questions being asked about my homestead. I thought I should do so because I believe in transparency, openness and because, in the main, I have nothing to hide. This was not an easy decision. We, as a family, had to weigh up our privacy against the need for openness and accountability and we chose the latter.”
The president then goes on to painstakingly account for each taxpayer’s rand spent on his house and, to boot, provides copies of receipts – proof that he and no one else paid for the renovations. He calls on the Minister of Public Works to detail all the expenses that government has paid for and to provide reasons as well as documentary proof.
He then offers a guided tour of the homestead, ending at MaKhumalo’s spaza shop right near the main gate. It is the perfect spot for the president to put an end to his exercise of transparency and accountability. He shakes hands again, flashes the famous Zuma smile, the giggle echoes through the valley and the media contingent departs.
Imagine if it were true. Just imagine if this happened two years ago, when questions were first asked about Nkandla. The president would have nipped the controversy in the bud. He would have yanked the millstone from around his neck and thrown it into the Tugela River.
He would have denied the opposition cannon fodder. He would have led by example and demonstrated to South Africa that he was a leader who believed in transparency and accountability. He would have humbled himself before those he leads.
*Jovial Rantao is the editor of the Sunday Independent
Sunday Independent
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