South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, has taken out a home loan to repay state money spent on non-security upgrades to his private residence, his office has said. The repayment follows a scandal over lavish improvements to Zuma’s home, including a swimming pool and an amphitheatre. The constitutional court ordered Zuma in March to return some of the $16m (£12m) spent on enhancing his residence at Nkandla in the KwaZulu-Natal province. The president’s office said Zuma had taken out a home loan on standard terms from the private VBS Mutual Bank to repay 7.8m rand (£405,146) – the sum determined by the Treasury in June as the “reasonable cost” he should bear. In April, the president survived an impeachment vote in parliament after the court’s ruling over the Nkandla costs, but the long-running scandal has damaged him.

Source: The Guardian September 12, 2016 14:24 UTC