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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.

Jacob Zuma cannot continue to loot the public purse to fund his court cases in order to keep himself out of jail.

In addition to the already budgeted R5.327 million for legal fees over the 2016-2019 medium term, the President was handed a further R2.1 million for “unforeseen increased legal costs.” This puts the total cost allocated over the MTEF now at R7.427 million.

President Zuma is not just wrongly taking public money to build Nkandla. He is taking public money to defend himself in court for wrongly taking public money for Nkandla.

The DA will not stand back while Jacob Zuma abuses government funds while our people go without work, and dignity that comes with finding a job.

The Presidency therefore must release the full cost of all legal costs incurred by the State in relation to the Nkandla upgrades.

Issued by DA