South African President, Jacob Zuma, has agreed to pay back some of the public funds he used to upgrade his personal house.
This disclosure was contained in a statement released on Tuesday, by the president’s office.
A judicial ruling in 2014 stated that Zuma, and his family, ‘benefited unduly’ from works carried out on the South African president’s rural home in Nkandla.
This has sparked a two year scandal, which has brought great embarrassment to the South African presidency, a situation, analysts say, Zuma is trying to end by paying back the said funds.
Listed on the security upgrades was a swimming pool which was described as a fire fighting facility, a chicken run, a cattle enclosure, an amphitheater and a visitor’ lounge.
The upgrades done in 2014 on the property were said to be worth about 216m rand ($24m).
The statement, however, did not state how much Zuma will return.
“To achieve an end to the drawn-out dispute … the president proposes that the determination of the amount he is to pay should be independently and impartially determined,” a statement from the South African president office, read.
President Zuma has been severally accused of giving corruption a growing space since he assumed the presidency in 2009.
