South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has taken out a home loan to repay state money spent on nonsecurity upgrades to his private residence, his office said yesterday, after a scandal over lavish improvements including a swimming pool and amphitheatre.

In a stinging rebuke that hit Zuma financially and politically, the Constitutional Court ordered him in March to return some of the $16 million spent on enhancing his residence at Nkandla in the KwaZulu-Natal province.

Near record unemployment and a stagnant economy have exacerbated discontent with Zuma’s leadership. He survived an impeachment vote in April over the Nkandla costs with backing from the ruling African National Congress (ANC), which has been in power since the end of white-minority rule in 1994.

In August, the ruling party suffered its worst losses in municipal elections and lost its grip in key cities including the capital Pretoria and the economic hub of Johannesburg.

The president’s office said Zuma had taken out a home loan on standard terms from private black-owned VBS Mutual Bank to repay 7.8 million rand ($538,000) – the sum determined by the Treasury in June as the “reasonable cost” he should bear.