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'Zuma's legacy will be judged by Nkandla'

Cape Town - The legacy of President Jacob Zuma is contingent on how he deals with the issue of upgrades to his Nkandla homestead, Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba said at a march outside Parliament on Saturday.

"Mr President, how you are remembered in history, your legacy, is going to be determined by how you speak to the nation about how you made the decisions you have made," Magoba said in a speech prepared for delivery at the march.

A number of religious leaders marched from District Six to Parliament both in celebration of twenty years of democracy and to raise concerns about the current state of affairs in the country.

Makgoba said that he wanted to believe Zuma "when he said that he didn't rob our nation's treasury. But if he didn't, did he hold the stepladder? If he did, sadly he's as guilty as the person who climbed through your window."

He said Zuma needed to address South Africans on the matter urgently as there were "historic levels of distrust" towards the government.

"We need to hear the voice of responsibility speak."

Makgoba said that South Africa's current "historic opportunity" was not the celebration of two decades of democracy, but rather how Zuma decided the fate of the country.

"It's in your moments of decision or indecision that our destiny is shaped."

On March 19, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela released her report on costly security upgrades at Zuma's Nkandla homestead in KwaZulu-Natal, saying Zuma should have asked questions about the scale, costs, and affordability of security upgrades which could end up being as much as R240 million.

On April 2, Zuma submitted a response to parliament about the Nkandla issue in which he undertook to give a "further report" on "decisive executive interventions" after he would receive a report from the Special Investigating Unit that he had directed to probe security upgrades at Nkandla.

At the time, the presidency issued a statement saying: "the president remains concerned about the allegations of maladministration and impropriety around procurement in the Nkandla project, in particular the allegations of cost inflation". This week, it was announced that a multi-party ad-hoc committee would be established to consider President Jacob Zuma's response to the Public Protector's report on Nkandla.

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