Why does Zuma want to pay back mansion money now?

Mr Zuma has been under pressure to repay the money

South African President Jacob Zuma's willingness to finally pay back the money spent on controversial security upgrades at his private residence in Nkandla could be a calculated move to avoid embarrassment at the Constitutional Court hearing due next week. 

But it could also be linked to the forthcoming crucial local government election. The Nkandla scandal, which revolves around $23m (£15m) of government money being spent on upgrading his home, has been a sore point for Mr Zuma's African National Congress (ANC), especially as the party faithful go out to campaign for votes. 

Political analyst Professor Somadoda Fikeni told me that it could also be related to the president being "politically vulnerable as he enters his lame duck period" and following the controversy late last year over the appointment of a finance minister. 

Another consideration could well be the fact that Mr Zuma is due to deliver his state of the nation address in parliament on 11 February. 

He may want attempt to avert another episode of the chaotic scenes we saw last year when when left-wing MPs from Julius Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) heckled and disrupted his address. 

Security personnel had to be called into the chamber to remove the MPs who would not stop shouting "pay back the money'" while Mr Zuma desperately tried to deliver his speech.

The red shirted EFF MPs brawled with white shirted security officers in parliament last year