South African court has issued an order to freeze outgoing payments from former President Jacob Zuma’s accounts amidst a legal dispute regarding loans obtained for renovations to his private residence during his time in office.
First National Bank (FNB) confirmed on Wednesday that the court directive came as a result of legal action initiated by the liquidators of another bank, to which Zuma owes money.
“FNB was instructed by the High Court to place a hold on outgoing payments from former President Zuma’s FNB accounts. The accounts are not closed as incoming payments are unaffected,” stated FNB in a statement to AFP.
“This instruction from the court results from the process currently being managed by the VBS Bank liquidators, and FNB was legally required to comply. Former President Zuma’s recourse now lies with the courts and VBS liquidators,” the statement added.
The partial freeze on Zuma’s accounts is a new development likely to further damage his reputation, particularly as he is set to contest in upcoming general elections on May 29 with a newly-formed political party.
In power from 2009 to 2018, Zuma is fronting a small start-up party that is threatening to take away key votes from his old home, the African National Congress.
The partial account freeze is related to the decade-old, controversial renovation of Zuma’s massive homestead in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal.
In 2016, a top court found that the then-president had acted against the constitution by using millions of dollars of state funds to refurbish his rural Nkandla home in the name of “security upgrades.”
Some of the features included a chicken coop and a swimming pool, alleged to be a fire-fighting facility — coined ‘fire pool’– a cattle enclosure and an amphitheatre.
In order to pay back the money, Zuma took out a 7.8 million rand ($413,000) loan from VBS, and he is now facing pressure to settle the outstanding debt owed to VBS Bank as its liquidators pursue legal action to recover the loan amount.
Credit: AFP
