IT’S NOW UP TO CONCOURT TO GIVE GREEN LIGHT ON ZUMA'S NKANDLA PAYOUT

If approved, President Jacob Zuma will have 45 days to pay the R7.8 million bill.

President Jacob Zuma. Picture: GCIS.

JOHANNESBURG – Following this afternoon’s announcement that President Jacob Zuma will have to pay back the money, law expert Pierre de Vos says it’s now up to the Constitutional Court to rubber stamp National Treasury’s amount of R7.8 million.

“The determination made by the Treasury today complies with the Public Protector’s remedial action, so in that sense I think that the Constitutional Court will give the go ahead for this determination to be final.”

President Zuma will then have 45 days to pay back the money.

There is no provision stopping him from receiving financial assistance.

De Vos says once the court gives its approval, the parties involved in this case cannot contest the amount determined by Treasury.

Earlier, Treasury said it contracted two independent quantity surveying firms to conduct two separate investigations, and that it then moderated the results of those two probes.

In the end, the finance ministry says of the five facilities that were in question, a reasonable percentage of the estimated costs that the president would have to pay personally comes to nearly 88 percent of their total cost.

This corresponds to a final figure of R7,814,105 in 2009 prices.

HOW DID TREASURE GET TO THE FIGURE?

Treasury says it has worked out the total cost of the chicken run, cattle culvert, swimming pool, visitor’s centre and amphitheatre.

Earlier this year, judges found Zuma had failed to uphold his oath of office, because he had failed to comply with the Public Protector’s finding that he pay back a reasonable percentage of the non-security costs at his home

In its report to the court, National Treasury says two separate reports were drawn up by two different quantity surveyors, using information from the public works ministry.

Then, a separate moderation panel comprising members of the South African Institution of Civil Engineers, and the association of South African quantity surveyors worked out a final amount that should be paid for each facility.

But Treasury has also taken into account the fact that police use the lower floor of the visitor’s centre, meaning President Zuma will not have to pay the construction cost of that floor.