What Nkandla’s millions could have bought South Africans

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela released the Nkandla report this week, which showed that the estimated total cost of improvements to President Zuma’s Nkandla home is R246,631,303.

Madonsela’s report found that the total cost of the Nkandla project included:

• Total payment to contractors R161,418,824;
• Value of contractor payments certificates, certified but not yet paid, R3,672,748;
• Total payment to professional consultants R50,352,842; and
• Cost estimate for phase three, excluding consultants’ fees R31,186,887.

According to the public protector’s report a critical service delivery program was shelved and money diverted to upgrade Zuma’s homestead.

“Funds were reallocated from the inner city regeneration project and the dolomite risk management programme of the department of public works,” Mandonsela said in her voluminous report.

“Due to lack of proper demand management and planning, service delivery programs of the department of public works were negatively affected.”

The homestead has been at the centre of controversy after it emerged that the public works department had approved upgrades to the President’s KwaZulu-Natal homestead.

What could the Nkandla money have been better used for?

South Africa can benefit tremendously from better IT infrastructure, a more connected society, and better education.

Here is what the money spent on the Nkandla upgrades could have bought South Africans:

• Cover the whole Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban metropolitan areas with Wi-Fi networks which can be used to provide citizens and businesses in these area with affordable 10Mbps broadband access.
• Provide 2,000 schools with the necessary computer equipment for a 20 PC computer laboratory.
• Provide 1,800 schools with 10Mbps uncapped ADSL connections 10 years.
• Provide 166,779 students and school-children with Lenovo A1000 Android tablets.
• Provide MTN Steppa Android smartphones to 500,000 underprivileged South Africans.

Other projects Nkandla’s money could have been spent on

The following infographic, courtesy of BusinessTech, gives another perspective on what the money could have been spent on.

More on Nkandla report

Zuma and his family unduly benefited from Nkandla upgrades