President Jacob Zuma - Public out cry, home renovation R238 million

South Africa's political parties

South Africa has a vibrant multiparty political system, with 13 parties represented in the National Assembly of Parliament.

 
The African National Congress (ANC) is the majority party, with 249 of the 400 National Assembly seats. The party controls eight of the country's nine provinces, with the exception of the Western Cape, where the Democratic Alliance has been in power since 2009 elections. In 2014, the DA secured 59.38% of the provincial vote.

 
The ANC controls seven of the eight metropolitan municipalities. Nonetheless, South Africa's opposition parties remain robust and vocal.

 
South Africa's Parliament is made up of two houses: the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces. The National Assembly is the more influential, passing legislation and overseeing executive performance. Its members are elected for a term of five years.

 
All South African citizens over the age of 18 eligible to vote, if they register to do so. So far, South Africa has had fully inclusive democratic elections every five years since 1994. Before the end of apartheid, only white South Africans were allowed to vote for the national government.

The ANC - African Native National Congress

The organisation was initially founded as the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) on 8 January 1912 in Bloemfontein, with

the aim of fighting for the rights of black South Africans. The organization was renamed the ANC in 1923.

The DA - Democratic Alliance

The Democratic Party (DP), now the Democratic Alliance (DA), was formed on 8 April 1989, when the former Progressive Federal Party, Independent Party and National Democratic Movement merged. Under the combined leadership of Zach de Beer, Denis Worrall and Wynand Malan.

The ANC, which came to power after toppling white apartheid rule in 1994, crushed an opposition bid to impeach Zuma last week but has faced rising calls, including from some of its veteran members, to remove him.

"It is not the Constitutional Court judgement that is the issue. The issue is the trust deficit that has developed, with people beginning to trust us less and less and less and less," ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said on Sunday.

Speaking at the anniversary of the 1993 killing of anti-apartheid activist Chris Hani, Mantashe defended the ANC's rejection of the impeachment drive against Zuma; saying to do otherwise would have served the opposition's agenda.

"But it doesn't absolve us from looking into our own behaviour. There must be change in our behaviour as a movement," he added. "If we don't change our behaviour, we become arrogant in dealing with our problems. We are going to pay the price."

Mantashe spoke as residents in poor townships vowed to boycott August local government elections out of anger that the ANC has done little to improve their lives, dashing the hopes that accompanied Nelson Mandela's inauguration as South Africa's first black president two decades ago.

Zuma's own presidency has been riddled with controversy. Most recently, his close ties with the wealthy Gupta family have come under scrutiny after the deputy finance minister said the Indian-born family had influenced the sudden firing of his former boss in December.

On Friday, Zuma's son Duduzane said he would sell his investments in a mining firm owned by the Guptas amid speculation the family is wielding undue political influence.

The City Press newspaper reported on Sunday that some Gupta family members had left South Africa for Dubai following their resignation from positions at some local companies after major banks dropped the firms as clients.

Representatives of the family's business interests declined to comment on the story.
"The Gupta family has no further comment at this time, and will not be detailing the individual movements of family members," a short statement said in response to Reuter’s questions.
"The onus is now on the business establishment and the banks to do the right thing."

Zuma’s home improvements cost taxpayer more than R200m

Jacob Zuma is facing investigation amid public outcry over intentions to renovate his home in Nklanda and build a nearby town - coined ‘Zumaville’ - at a massive cost to SA taxpayers.

 

PRESIDENT Zuma is facing investigation amid public outcry over intentions to renovate his home in Nkandla and build a nearby town – coined ‘Zumaville’ – at a massive cost to SA taxpayers.

Disquiet over the debacle, which has been referred to by The Guardian as “Nkandlagate”, increased on Monday after it was revealed that the R238m expected to be spent on renovating Zuma’s residence – up from the predicted R6.4m two years ago – was significantly more than the amount spent on former presidents’ homes, including Mandela’s. Zuma, whose planned renovations include a helipad, medical clinic, playground and visitors’ center, originally said he would foot the majority of the bill for the work, but it has since transpired that he will pay just 5%.

The latest outcry follows controversy in August over proposals that R2bn would be spent on building a town two miles from Zuma’s home, to create a middle-class backwater community in an area that currently has a 47.4% rate of unemployment. The timing of “Nkandlagate” is significant, following the recent spate of miner’s strikes and the impending end-of-year elections.

“[Zuma] is behaving like a monarch rather than the president of the republic,” said Aubrey Matshiqi of the Helen Suzman Foundation, as reported by The Guardian. “It makes me think of the king of Swaziland or Jean-Bédel Bokassa [self-crowned emperor of the Central African Republic].”

Timeslive has reported that at the ANC conference in June this year Zuma deplored the state of living conditions in South Africa, saying that the problems of the nation were keeping him awake at night. His words are now being thrown back at him by he opposition. “I have paid visits to a number of areas where you can’t believe that you are in South Africa.” He reportedly said. “Why should I see that, as the president of the country, not even of the ANC, and think that I could sleep peacefully when I know there are people who live in things you can’t even describe as a house?”

The Umlalazi-Nkandla Smart Growth Centre, the official name of “Zumaville”, will be funded by more than R1bn of taxpayers’ money as well as a further R1bn from the private sector. The plans have faced criticism over favoritism, but Zuma has retaliated with arguments that people in his home-area shouldn’t be penalised just because of their location. Last month he told parliament that rural development was happening throughout the country, and that he did not intervene to ensure that improvements focused on his region. “Why should people at Nkandla, 3km from where Zuma stays, starve?” he said. “Why must they be isolated? Why should others who are in other areas be more important than those? Should they be punished because they are neighbours of Zuma? I don’t think so.”

The parliamentary leader of the DA, Lindiwe Mazibuko, said: “The DA has learnt that thousands of people living on the outskirts of Nkandla, in villages like Babanango, Kataza and Ebizimali, are still without the most basic services. Yet 2bn rand will be spent on a multi-purpose center a few kilometers away from President Zuma’s homestead.”

Meanwhile the public protector, Thuli Madonsela, has received a number of complaints about irregular spending on Zuma’s residence, and has started collating information that could lead to a full investigation. Civil society group Corruption Watch is also looking into the situation.