The countryside and nothing else.
Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma was born on 12 April 1942 at the Nkandla estate, which is situated within the remote hills of KwaZulu-Natal. Once off the highway, you have to drive along winding roads with potholes. Cattle sometimes get in the way, an appropriate reminder to the visitor that one is meeting a man who – as a child – was a herdsman. But Nkandla Homestead’s opulence tells another story: that of a former president who was accused of corruption and embezzlement.
The property is rustic in style, with traditional round thatched houses. From the outside, there is nothing flashy about the property. Yet it is at the heart of one of Zuma’s biggest scandals. As soon as he was elected in 2009, the new head of state set about securing the property. What was supposed to be an upgrade turned into an unbridled expansion project. The cost of the project rose
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