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Durban - People have misinterpreted an internal police memorandum that appears to show an instruction by President Jacob Zuma regarding his Nkandla homestead, a police official told media on an official tour on Sunday.
"If you read the letter, that talks about the SA Police Service, it's talking about his residence. This house was not part of the homestead and that is why the house was made part of the homestead," General Mondli Bethuel Zuma told media during an official tour on Sunday.
"People are misinterpreting that letter. The president did not say that. The Public Works department and the resident are in negotiations to either buy the house or demolish the house."
According to the memorandum seen earlier this week, the president ordered in no uncertain terms that extra flats be built for police members at his Nkandla home.
It stated: "By instruction of the State President, President Zuma, the existing house at Nkandla currently accommodate (sic) SAPS members must be converted as part of the president's household.
"To cater for the needs of the members currently accommodated in the house as refer above (sic), additional bachelor flats need to be added to the needs assessment previously provided to your department."
This instruction, signed by senior superintendent LF Linde, was contained in the memorandum read out during deliberations by the Nkandla ad hoc committee in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday, after an inspection of the compound on Wednesday.
The document, dated October 23, 2009, was part of a file handed over to the committee by Police Minister Nathi Nhleko in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature earlier this week.
The media was allowed into President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead in KwaZulu-Natal on Sunday for an official tour.
This visit comes after the SA National Editors' Forum said it was disappointed by the limited access journalists had during a parliamentary committee oversight visit to Zuma's home on Wednesday.
