I was amazed to find out that our dear president, Jacob Zuma, was about to have one of his house refurbished for 177 Million Rand!! for those of you not familiar with the South African Rand, this is about 18 million Euros or 25 million US dollars, (not bad for some DIY).

And, we are not talking about a new house here, only refurbishing the house, to give you an idea of the price of things around here, I have openly admitted that I am what you would call lower to middle class, I live in a nice enough house, and it is worth about 1 Million, so he could buy 177 houses for that price, and probably refurbish about 10000 houses!
I have no doubt that the house is not falling appart, so what are we talking about here? A coat of paint, a new window? Maybe a new driveway?

I don't know the official figures, but I have no doubt that it does not cost that much to refurbish the white house or any other presidential residences, (well any non African presidential residences).

Anyway Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde, (the public work minister), admitted that it might be a touch too much money and has put the project on hold. You might think this is democracy finally working in an African country, but you'd be wrong.

You see we have elections coming up in May, so the president must be seen to save money, you can rest assured that builders will start work shortly after the results are announced...