What you can buy for the price of a R6 million security home at Nkandla

·23 Jul 2015

Media and politicians were this week given a tour of President Jacob Zuma’s controversial Nkandla homestead, revealing high levels of wasted expenditure.

According to Police Minister Nathi Nhleko the total expenditure on Nkandla was a little more than R206 million.

Of this, R50.5 million was spent on security upgrades, R20.7 million on consultants and professionals and the biggest portion of R135.2 million was spent on the 21 houses for the SA Police Service (SAPS) and SANDF.

The 21 SAPS and SANDF houses have since stood empty.

According to tour reports, many of the houses are incomplete, with only a few having the bare minimum for living requirements.

Nkandla ad hoc committee chairperson Cedric Frolick expressed shock at the state of the buildings, saying that “the Department of Public Works has a lot of explaining to do”.

“We have seen the gross inflation of prices. What I’ve seen today is not worth more than the R200 million claimed to have been spent. And the people responsible for that must be held accountable,” he said.

Many of the images coming out of Nkandla show underwhelming semi-detached thatched units considering their R6.4 million price tag.

The units already appear to have fallen into disrepair.

Nkandla SANDF home (News24)

For all the images from Nkandla, you can check out the News24 gallery.

BusinessTech looked at several properties up for sale across South Africa for around R6 million, showing exactly how South African taxpayers got shafted with the SANDF homes construction project.

Gauteng

This 500 square metre Roman-styled home in Fourways isn’t even the biggest property listed, but with four bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, an a walk-in closet, it offers far more than the homes at Nkandla.

Included is a firepool.

Mpumalanga

For R6 million, one could have this 1,247 square metre home in Aerorand, Middelburg. It offers four bedrooms, three bathrooms and parking for seven vehicles.

It also has its own firepool.

Cape Town

For the price of one single Nkandla security home, you could get a 1,325 square metre country home in the Cape. The three bedroom home has a classic Cape Dutch styling – and even has its own two-bedroom cottage.

It also has a vineyard, and firepool.

Polokwane

This 800 square metre home is also up for sale in Polokwane. It boasts four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and an open plan living centre spread across two floors.

It also has its very own firepool.

All home listings were found on Property24.