Justice Malala: "South African President Zuma Whitewashing The Fact That He Used US$23 Million In Tax Dollars To Upgrade His Personal Mansion Just Doesn't Wash"

Tax dollars are being used on President Jacob Zuma's compound

Yes, most despicable and I'm glad that South Africa's moderate-conservatives and moderate-liberals are calling him out on it. Mr. Malala, a South African center-right columnist, writes: "There were several scandalous aspects to the press conference by Minister of Public Works Thulas Nxesi [a South African Communist Party member] to explain away the Nkandlagate mess yesterday. There were the obfuscations. There were the lies. Yet Nxesi ignored the one really huge scandal in front of him. He totally ignored it, despite the fact that it was breaking wind in his face and begging for attention. The scandal is line five of the findings section of Nxesi's press release. It says: 'The investigation has found that the amount paid by the state to date [for President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla home] is R206420644.37 [US$22.6 million]'"

Mr. Malala continues his commentary about the expenditure: "In this country, where so many of our people are living in abject poverty and hunger visits schoolchildren and parents alike, the 'government of the people' spent R206-million [US$22.6 million] upgrading security at the presidential compound in his home village. This is the scandal of our country: our leaders have forgotten that they lead a country of extreme poverty, and that it is obscene that so much money can be spent on just one man and his family. The fact that there was no sense of shame or embarrassment from the ministers assembled in Pretoria, or from Zuma himself, that this obscene amount could be spent on just one person and his family is the real scandal. The lack of shame, the belief by this administration and its numerous acolytes that this is just fine, that is the scandal. That is a fundamental loss of what makes us different from the kleptocratic leaders of this world. We are lost so long as this government, its ministers and all our people believe that it is right, it is not to be questioned, when R206-million is spent on just one man."