INLSA
The electricity to Saratoga Gardens in Berea, Joburg, where President Jacob Zuma and his ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, own two flats, was cut off two weeks ago. Photo: Mujahid Safodien
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President Jacob Zuma will pay the outstanding R120 000 bill owed for electricity, water and rates for two flats he owns in Berea, Joburg.
In a statement released on Thursday, Zuma said he regretted the problems surrounding his two flats at Saratoga Gardens in Joburg’s inner-city area of Berea and the nuisance it had caused tenants.
“The president has assigned his lawyers to urgently liaise with the property management agents with a view to settling the debts. He regrets the inconvenience caused to residents,” read the statement.
The statement follows a report in The Star on Wednesday that told of how electricity supply to the entire building had been cut off three weeks ago because of an unpaid municipal service bill.
The R120 000 Zuma owes in levies for the two flats is part of a R1.8m municipal bill the City of Joburg says the body corporate owes it for municipal services.
About four months ago, unit owners applied to have the building placed under administration because of the escalating debt to the council. They dispute the bills.
Outraged residents have accused Zuma of slumlording by having nine tenants living in one of his flats.
Val Hughes said his excuses held no water. “It’s all very well for him to say a managing agent was taking care of the properties, but surely he checks on them to see what is happening?”
The building in Saratoga Avenue was hijacked seven years ago by some sectional title owners who made tenants pay their levy money over to them, claiming that they would see to the maintenance work on the building, but this never happened.
The owners formed a committee and collected money from tenants, but failed to pay the building’s municipal bills.
The matter was reported to the Scorpions, and the main perpetrator was arrested and deported to Zimbabwe.
While the other flat owners reclaimed their units, Zuma did not. A disabled, wheelchair-bound man by the name of Lucky continued collecting the rent for Zuma’s two units – one of which houses nine people living in small partitioned sections in the flat.
On Thursday, Zuma explained that he bought the flats when he returned from exile and had not used them in many years. He said the flats were being administered by a legal agent, who he said had been trying to sell them.
His former wife, Minister of Home Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, is still listed as a 50 percent owner of the two flats. – The Star
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Apologetic Zuma to pay up