If everything goes according to plan, South African taxpayers could be paying for Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini’s new “facility,” the Sunday Times reports.

Yay for yet another instance of nepotism wasting away our national cash flow.

The information emerged as part of a paper which detailed plans to spend over R1 billion “to overhaul to the reed dance facility – where the King wants suitable accommodation and bathing for ‘thousands of women’ who attend the reed dance festival – as well as replacing soil”.

Serious  – and the original initial cost was a mere R225 million back in 2014.

While R129 million has already been approved for the first phase of development by the national department of arts and culture, the project has now been “put on hold by the department of arts and culture, pending an investigation into irregularities”.

Here’s more from Business Tech:

A report by Gobodo Forensic & Investigative Accounting was tabled in parliament this week showing that costs have been inflated by construction companies – and with the current scope and direction, would swell to over R1 billion.

Among the irregularities noted by the department are throw-backs to Nkandla, where construction companies are being paid without having done any work, and over-use of consultants with inflated fees.

The paper visited the site and found that not much had been done with the R130 million already given to the development, with only an incomplete VIP facility and some concrete walls being built.

Basically, we could end up paying more for the upgrade of Zwelithini’s royal kraal than we did on Nklanda, even though we already give the Zulu king plenty, explains Sunday Times:

King Zwelithini is already the beneficiary of generous state funding – he has been paid about R550-million in the past decade alone. The most recent royal budget revealed that the Royal Household Trust, which falls under the KwaZulu-Natal premier’s office, would receive R58.9-million for the 2017-18 financial year.

Talk about some serious mismanagement of funds.

[source:timeslive&businesstech]