Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa, has prompted anger with a reported R65m (£5.3m) expansion of his personal residence in one of the country's poorest regions.
Zuma's rural homestead will gain a police station, helipad, military clinic, visitors' centre, parking lot for 40 vehicles and three houses, according to South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper, which claimed taxpayers would foot "the largest chunk of the bill".
New houses are apparently being built to accommodate Zuma's three wives, the paper said. Critics accused the president of "conspicuous consumption in the face of dire poverty".
The rural family homestead is in Nkandla, in KwaZulu-Natal province, where many of Zuma's neighbours lack electricity or running water. Official figures show that more than half of KwaZulu-Natal's 10 million population live in poverty, with 1.2 million surviving on less than R200 (£16) a month. Sources told the paper that the expansion will cost an estimated R65m.
Source: Guardian UK
