South Africa: Zuma Reimburses 542,000 Dollars

The Constitutional Court ordered him to pay back the money to the public treasury he spent to refurbish his Nkandla private residence.

South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma has paid back  to the State treasury  the 542,000 U.S. Dollars he spent to renovate his traditional homestead in Nkanla in the rural eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, NDTV reports.

The country’s highest court, the Constitutional Court found him guilty of siphoning the money from the public treasury and ordered him to pay back to the said treasury 7,814,155 million rand local currency which is the equivalent of 542,000 U.S. Dollars. The money was used to refurbish a swimming pool, a chicken run, a cattle enclosure, an amphitheatre and a visitors’ centre.
"President Zuma has paid over the amount... to the South African Reserve Bank as ordered by the Constitutional Court of South Africa," NDTV quoted a statement from  the presidency. The statement added that the president raised the money through a home loan. Reports say the treasury confirmed separately that the payment had been received.
What has come to be known as the “House Scandal” started in  2014 when a report made by the public ombudswoman, Thuli Madonsela, found that Zuma and his family had "unduly benefited" from the upgrade work -- valued in 2014 at 216 million rand (then 24 million U.S. Dollars) and ordered him to pay back some of th...