President Jacob Zuma erred in law regarding the remedial actions recommended by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela on his Nkandla homestead, the Constitutional Court heard on Tuesday.

“Whether or not the president’s error in law was in good or bad faith, the remaining fact is that the president did err in law. The minister of police duly produced his report, contradicting the public protector’s report and stating that Zuma was not liable,” Gilbert Marcus, for Madonsela, told the court.

Marcus said there were was a long list of features added to his home at taxpayer’s expense that did not relate to security, over and above the five listed by Madonsela.

“We need to clear the misunderstanding on this. The Public Protector listed five features that are not security features. The number of the features is over and above the five specified features,” he said.

Madonsela identified a cattle kraal, chicken run, amphitheatre, visitor centre and a swimming pool as non security features for which Zuma should pay a reasonable amount back to the State.

The court is hearing two applications, by the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) respectively, on whether the failure to comply with the remedial action set out by Madonsela constituted a breach of constitutional duties by both Zuma and the National Assembly.

Madonsela and advocacy organisation Corruption Watch have been admitted as friends of the court.

Jeremy Gauntlet SC, for Zuma, was expected to address the court after its lunch break