Jacob Zuma could be called to testify during the public works departmental disciplinary hearings into upgrades to the president’s Nkandla home, the Sunday Independent reported.

“We’re not ruling out the possibility that President Jacob Zuma could be called to testify,” Kwazulu-Natal Public Service Association (PSA) manager Claude Naiker told the newspaper.

“No matter who the persons may be, we will call them to verify our members’ cases. We will exhaust every avenue to defend our members,” he said.

The PSA union is representing 10 public works officials who face disciplinary action over the R246 million upgrades to Zuma’s private Nkandla homestead in KwaZulu-Natal.

Naiker said the financial standing of the officials had already been the subject of a Special Investigating Unit probe.

“In the end it revealed that they had not derived any monetary gain from the Nkandla project.”

He said the officials had “followed proper procedures according to the financial management act and other prescribed policies.”

Public Works spokesman Brent Simons told the Sunday Independent that the hearings were not a “witch hunt.

“There is no national agenda against the accused in terms of the chages and the disciplinary hearing they face,” he said.

The hearings will commence on October 27 and the accused face various charges related to misconduct and maladministration; as well as violating certain departmental procedures.

All the accused are either involved in project management for the department or are members of the department’s regional bid adjudication committee. SAPA