Connect with us

International

Zuma in danger of losing controversial rural home over $23m debt

Published

on

Zuma in danger of losing controversial rural home over $23m debt

Former South African President, Jacob Zuma is in danger of losing his controversial country home in Nkandla, over his inability to keep up with repayment of a loan.

Reports say Zuma first defaulted in 2016, when he was told by a Constitutional Court that he had breached the constitution by not paying back some of the $23m (£19m) which government spent on upgrading his country home.

According to News24, Mr Zuma who made a move to pay back the money at the time, borrowed $500,000 from the VBS bank.

But court papers, seen by News24 and TimesLive, relating to the liquidation of VBS, shows that the former president has failed to keep up with the loan repayments.

READ ALSO: CAMEROON: Biya warns English-speaking separatists to surrender or face military action

Mr Zuma first went into arrears in August last year and has since made “sporadic repayments, all of which were less than the agreed monthly instalments,” TimesLive quotes the court papers as saying.

He is currently $38,000 in arrears, the court papers say. The VBS liquidators want Mr Zuma to pay up and if he fails, they could seize his Nkandla homestead.

As at the time of filing in this report, Zuma’s spokesman was quoted by TimesLive to have said that he was waiting for the former president’s legal team to comment on the matter.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now