The Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday granted VBS mutual bank curator Anoosh Rooplal an order to seize former president Jacob Zuma’s assets to pay back taxpayers’ money that was spent on upgrades to his homestead in Nkandla.
VBS bank can now seize Zuma’s cattle, furniture and other reasonable assets to repay his R6.5 million loan for his homestead in Nkandla.
In her report on the upgrades at Zuma’s Nkandla home, published in March 2014 and titled “Secure in Comfort”, former public protector Thuli Madonsela concluded that when security improvements were made, a number of structures were built at the state’s expense which were not related to security.
Madonsela said the president must, with the assistance of the ministers of police and finance, determine the reasonable costs of those features and repay the state a reasonable portion of that amount.
News24 reported in 2019 that Zuma had to pay back millions to his VBS bond- or lose his Nkandla property.
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.
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,” Rooplal said.
Rooplal and the VBS bank had asked the court to force Zuma to pay back the money or grant an order that will allow VBS to seize property worth the amount that is owed by the former president.
“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.
Source: News24, Daily Maverick, Eyewitness News, Dispatch Live, Times Live, image from Times Live: Thembinkosi Dwayisa