South African president Zuma accused of using taxpayer money to upgrade personal residence...

Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa, is facing an official investigation and public outcry over plans to upgrade his private residence and build a nearby town, dubbed "Zumaville", at a cost of millions to taxpayers.

Anger was surging on Monday over the 238m rand (£16.62m) renovations of Zuma's rural home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal province, after it was revealed that Nelson Mandela and other former presidents' homes had received substantially less from the state. This followed controversy over proposals for a 2bn rand town, the first to be built since the end of apartheid, two miles (3.2km) from the Zuma homestead.

"Nkandlagate" could not come at a worse time with violent strikes threatening to spread from mining to other industries and focusing attention on the gap between haves and have-nots. Zuma, 70, faces a tense re-election battle within the governing African National Congress in December. Full story...

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