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Developments at Nkandla were also launched by Masibambisane (loosely translated as “working together”) Development Initiative, a non-profit organisation founded in Nkandla to lobby government and business and channel development funding into the community. It was co-chaired by Jacob Zuma and his cousin, Deebo Mzobe.

In 2012, South African and international investors were wooed to pump millions of rands into the development of “Zumaville”, the nickname given to the R2-billion “smart village” earmarked for Nkandla.

Mzobe said it was Masibambisane which had come up with the idea of the new town.

He told City Press Masibambisane had partnered with the Department of Rural Development to create the planned 200-hectare town, to be built around existing government buildings and schools.

A Rural Development official who worked with Mzobe this week said: “He shows up with his flashy dress style and crocodile shoes and tells us what to do in meetings. It is a very unhealthy situation. “He is only a civilian, but the kind of influence he exercises in the department is staggering. He simply picks up a phone and phones a minister. It has happened before my own eyes: the minister of agriculture, land, economic development, he has a direct line to them.”

Several sources in the Rural Development and Land Reform Department confirmed that Mzobe was now regularly attending critical rural development meetings.

But Mzobe hit back, saying his organisation was simply a non-profit entity trying to uplift the lives of people living in rural areas. He admitted to attending government meetings regularly, but denied it was for sinister reasons.

He said: “It is not Masibambisane who convene these meetings. As stakeholders in rural development we have to be at these meetings. We want to make rural development happen in the areas where we are active and as a stakeholder we have to be at these meetings.”

Mzobe added: “We have seen lots of other initiatives in the area. What we want is to take all of these, including existing plans for shopping malls and other facilities, and package them together within the overall Umlalazi-Nkandla Smart Growth Centre.”

Mzobe confirmed that an initial feasibility study, master plan and environmental impact assessment (EIA) had been conducted at rural development’s expense. Rural Development spokesperson Mtobeli Mxotwa said his department was the “coordinator and facilitator’’ of the project, one of three such “smart villages’’ being built acrossthe country.

According to the EIA, the project would cost about R1 billion to complete, creating some 500 jobs and generating R10 million in wages in the development phase.

Project manager Craig Perritt of Aurecon, the consultants used by the Department Rural Development for the project, refused to comment. He said the department had insisted on a confidentiality clause in his contract.

After City Press reported on this project, DA Parliamentary Leader, Lindiwe Mazibuko wrote the following:

Over the last week the media have catalogued plans to construct a new, “smart growth” town close to the president’s Nkandla residence. The location of this project is neither coincidental nor altruistic in nature.

The president is simply prioritising his own community of Nkandla over other equally impoverished communities in KwaZulu-Natal.

Even if it were true that this ­initiative was conceptualised before his presidency began, the president should have shown appropriate judgement to avoid a conflict of interests.

But, of course, Zuma’s fingerprints are all over this project. He is the chairperson of the Masibambisane Rural Initiative, hardly a passive observer with a passing interest.

The R2billion that has been earmarked for this vanity project could be much better spent on equitably developing projects for many more people in KwaZulu-Natal. Despite claims that this misnamed “smart growth centre” is a public-private partnership, the taxpayer will be expected to foot half of the R1 billion price tag.

This project is neither “smart”, nor likely to lead to any “growth”. From a public policy perspective, we know that success in artificially creating new towns has been patchy across the world.

Yet there is a far more important point in the debate on Nkandla. In a poorly governed province which struggles to provide basic services like water and sanitation for many rural communities, this project is a monumental folly.

If there is any money to spare in the country’s emptying coffers, it should be spread equitably across many communities. Obviously, the DA is not suggesting that every community and project should receive an identical share. We simply ask for fairness through equality of opportunity for all.

This project also speaks of a failure of leadership on a wider front. The most important constitutional obligation of the state is to protect its citizens, especially the vulnerable. This week, we were reminded that the women of South Africa face daily threats to their very lives. Our communities are blighted by gratuitous violence against women and children.

Not far from Nkandla, we heard recently how grandmothers in KwaZakhele have had to take to the streets to protect their community and to tackle criminality. Many news reports have shown that the young people and men of KwaZakhele failed to protect the women of this community.

While this is true, the most proximate failure is of the state to protect its citizens. Yet we hear extra policing has been extended to the president’s own community of Nkandla, and his homestead. While Nkandla is locked down like the Pentagon, danger lurks outside the walls of the president’s impenetrable castle.

This president, who lives in a bunker of the mind, is now building one in reality.

The funding of the controversial Initiative also proved to be a murky area, just like the president’s homestead.

The department of agriculture initially vehemently denied spending money on the project. “We have not spent any money on Masibambisane,” said Palesa Mokomele, spokesperson for Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson, after reports that R800 million had been moved from the department to the project.

Mzobe also denied receiving money from the Department of Agriculture. “If we had that kind of money we would not be using our own money to pay the Masibambisane volunteer workers.”

Mzobe reportedly travelled first class and stayed in five star hotels, including The Michelangelo in Sandton, when attending rural development meetings. He was adamant that he picked up the bills himself. “If I go around in rural areas, I use my own car, I pay for petrol and I pay for tollgates. And if I go to Gauteng, I pay for my own ticket (and) pay for my own accommodation,” he said. Mzobe said he got a good discount at the Michelangelo because he stayed there regularly for three years. “The government is not paying a cent and Masibambisane is not paying either. I use my own credit card with money from my business,” he said.

But agriculture official Steve Galane admitted: “The department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries had made a pledge of R10 million towards the cattle, goat and irrigation cooperatives of the (Masibambisane) project.” Agriculture spokesperson Selby Bokaba then said that the department had contributed seeds (maize and beans) and fertiliser worth R3 million to Masibambisane.

In October 2012, the agriculture department’s annual report directly contradicted repeated denials from both the department and Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson. The department was grilled in Parliament, but the department’s director-general condoned the irregular payment, and no further action was taken.

Joemat-Pettersson then embraced the concept and Masibambisane became the flavour of the year in the department. Mzobe became a frequent visitor to the agriculture department, often engaging with the minister, officials said.

However, according to departmental sources, private donors got edgy when Masibambisane’s figures didn’t make sense.

By the end of 2012, Deebo Mzobe was being accused by officials in the rural development department of being too big for his crocodile-skin boots. Officials who City Press interviewed were worried about how strong a force Mzobe had become in the department.

They said Mzobe had organised several meetings with ministers at Joburg’s OR Tambo International Airport and that most of the calls and meetings concerned development in Nkandla.

But Mzobe downplayed his influence with the ministers. “The influence with ministers is simply not true. I speak to ministers like I would speak to you, to promote Masibambisane,” he said.

He admitted to having a close relationship with Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson. “Normally we spoke with her quite often, more than with other ministers, but we discussed nothing serious,” he said. He also admitted that he briefed Zuma about the government meetings. He said: “President Zuma is a chairperson of Masibambisane. He needs to know what we are doing. He dedicates a couple of days a year to meet with the people working in Masibambisane.”

In June 2013, there was widespread outrage when it emerged that almost R900 million from different government departments had been pledged to a new food-security programme administered by Masibambisane at a meeting at the presidential guesthouse in Pretoria.

The Department of Rural Development released an annual report in September 2013 which showed that R65.2 million was channelled to a “food-security programme” run by the Independent Development Trust (IDT). The IDT was a partner and funder of Masibambisane and a source confirmed that the money was meant for projects linked to Masibambisane. Mzobe denied receiving any money from the IDT. He said it had its own food-security projects that it implemented on behalf of government.

Then, in October of that year, Rural Affairs Minister Gugile Nkwinti for the first time opened up about the controversial Masibambisane development.

Nkwinti, whose department had been closely associated with the project, in effect accused Masibambisane of hijacking rural-development initiatives. “It was the way it was managed and the way it has been projected. It is out of order,” he told City Press at a media breakfast organised by the presidency.

In an interview with City Press at the same function, Zuma defended his role, saying he was “doing this as Jacob Zuma, not as the president”. He said because he was an elder, people respected him in the area. “It is an initiative from the peasants in the rural areas,” he said.

But Nkwinti lashed out at the handling of the project. “What is happening in reality is that our department puts up fences. It is our department that does the work,” he said. “But at the launches of each initiative it was projected as if Masibambisane did all the work.”

“For me, it is a great initiative from the community,” he added. Rural development even designed a model for the project. But when the Masibambisane project moved to the Free State and Limpopo, “it assumed a different character, which is not what the president wanted to see”. He said the idea was that the community should be driving the development, but instead it turned into a top-down project.

Another source in the department said “I can tell you now, people are not happy in the department. We have a mandate, but we are running around doing workshops for Masibambisane. At first it was an Nkandla thing, and then suddenly when questions were being asked about the president’s home town getting preferential treatment, it had to be rolled out all over the country.”

The official said the department was running around to do Masibambisane projects while the NGO was getting the credit. “People are talking, but you can’t question too much if the sentiment is that this is coming from Number One (Zuma) himself.”

Shortly thereafter, City Press revealed that both the departments of agriculture and rural development had decided to cut ties with Zuma’s nongovernmental organisation (NGO).

Instead, Zuma launched a new food policy called Fetsa Tlala in Kuruman in Northern Cape, run by the Department of Agriculture without the help of Masibambisane.

At that time, Joemat-Pettersson, backtracking again, insisted her department had not given Zuma’s NGO a cent. “All departments that have funded (Masibambisane) must audit them,” she said, adding that she did not know whohad funded it.

“If I had given them money, the first thing I would have demanded was an audit.

“Masibambisane was never (the Department of) Agriculture’s baby,” she insisted.

“It was more (the Department of) Rural Development,” she said. “It rolled over into Agriculture; before that it was Rural Development. Rural Development would come to my department and say ‘Mzobe says blah, blah, blah’. I would then say: ‘Who is Mzobe? He is not part of my department?’ That is not what I do.”

Mzobe steadfastly denied the private NGO received government funding. But this was refuted by confirmation that various government entities, including the Eastern Cape government, Public Works, the IDC and the IDT, boosted Masibambisane.

By mid 2013, Zumaville had become tangled in red tape and opposition from local residents.

The environmental impact assessment (EIA) was turned down by the Department of Environmental Affairs. The basic assessment submitted to the department lacked a waste-management plan and approval to proceed with the project was withheld.

In addition, consultants and officials of the Department of Rural Development had to placate Nxamalala Inkosi Vela Shange and a committee of izinduna from his traditional authority to try and break a deadlock with local people. Residents of Shange’s area made it clear they were not willing to move out of their homes. The more than 20 families say they do not want their family graves – some of which are centuries old – uprooted to make way for shops and offices.

“We have held a meeting with Mzobe and made it clear that we don’t want a town here,” one man, who asked not to be named, said during the meeting. They were also worried that this new development would bring crime to the area.

Meanwhile, residents of Nxamalala also said Mzobe had been “out of favour” with the president for some time. “We are not sure what the issue is, but it’s an open secret here that they are no longer on such good terms,” said one who spoke on condition of anonymity.

By encouraging the development of Zumaville, a stone’s throw away from his already majestic compound in Nkandla, Zuma was showing a shocking inability to read public perception.

His supporters made the emotive argument that rural development is a cornerstone of the Zuma presidency and therefore Zumaville should be encouraged rather than criticised.

At face value, supporters of Zumaville had a point.

An increasing number of South Africans are becoming urbanised. This leads to the increasing impoverishment of rural communities despite the discovery that the promise of cities is often false.

Developing rural areas so they can sustain themselves as economically viable options is important and adds to the quality of life there without the alienation that comes with the displacement of those who arrive in the cities for the first time. Rural development is part of the continuum that must include the creation of new towns and cities to meet South Africa’s development and population-growth trajectory.

However, prioritising one’s own backyard for development betrays a lack of class and statesmanship. It is shameless. He is president of the whole of South Africa, not just of the people of Nkandla.