By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The High Court in Pietermaritzburg has granted VBS Mutual Bank curator Anoosh Rooplal an order forcing former president Jacob Zuma to pay back money he spent on Nkandla upgrades in 2011.
Zuma took the loan in September 2016 to pay R7.8 million to the SA Reserve Bank to settle part of the debt emanating from non-security upgrades paid for by the state at his Nkandla homestead.
At the time, Zuma first claimed the upgrades were paid for by his family. In 2013, the DA asked then Public Protector Thuli Madonsela to investigate the spending and upgrades at Nkandla.
In 2014, Madonsela found the extensive R246-million upgrades at Zuma’s Nkandla residence – a much-publicised scandal at the time – were not all security related.
Court papers filed by Rooplal at the time showed Zuma had defaulted on the multimillion-rand loan extended to him by the bank in 2016.
Rooplal said several attempts to recover the money owed had been unsuccessful.
“Where repeated attempts to secure payments from clients result in no monies being received, we have no choice but to pursue the legal route in order to recover the money owed to the bank,” said Rooplal.
Rooplal and VBS had asked the court to grant an order to force Zuma to pay up, or give an order that will allow VBS to execute on the property a section of land owned by the Ingonyama Trust, named Nxamalala Farm, and on which Nkandla is built.
“Our next steps are to understand what movable assets can be attached in order to repay this debt. Since the Nkandla homestead was built on community land, we are unable to attach any immovable property in order to repay this debt,” Rooplal said on Tuesday.
The JG Zuma Foundation said the former president would study the court order and consult his legal team.