We now know that the houses were sponsored by Khaya Readykit,
which seemingly made the donation in the hope of winning bigger
government contracts. The donation could not have come at a better
time, as Zuma was at the centre of a political firestorm over the state’s
latest upgrades to his homestead. What better way to placate
supporters in his immediate surroundings than to give them new
houses?
About 300 kilometres from Nkandla, residents of the eastern Free
State town of Vrede were looking forward to receiving new houses of
their own. In August 2013 , the same month in which Zuma handed
over the houses built by Khaya Readykit in Natal, the council of the
Phumelela local municipality, which includes Vrede, approved a layout
plan for 1 700 new residential erven on the town’s outskirts in order to
house people from the nearby Thembalihle township.^11 What the poor
township residents did not know was that powerful politicians were
allegedly concocting plans to capture the budget for this new
development. Their hopes of becoming homeowners would eventually
be dashed by the very leaders who were supposed to have looked after
their interests.
At this stage, the Free State provincial government was already
pouring money into the Vrede dairy project, just a stone’s throw away
from the proposed housing development. The Gupta-linked dairy
venture had by then begun to attract some media attention,^12 but the
scheming around the nearby low-cost housing project remained under
wraps.
A source from the construction industry who was intimately involved
in the project alleged that Zuma and Magashule were pulling the
strings. This source, who attended meetings with Magashule, said he
nora
(Nora)
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