President Cyril Ramaphosa has steered clear of the reinvigorated controversy around the R4-million pool at Nkandla, with his spokesperson saying that former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's "Secure in Comfort" report already dealt with the matter.

In a leaked voice note on 9 January, former police minister Nathi Nhleko criticised African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, who recently claimed that the "fire pool" explanation from the then minister was false.

While addressing ANC members on Sunday, Mbalula confirmed what was previously widely understood to be a lie: that the R4-million amenity in former president Jacob Zuma's homestead was in fact a swimming pool - not a fire pool.

But, in the voice note to KwaZulu-Natal politicians following Mbalula's remarks, Nhleko stood by his initial claim that the facility was a fire pool - a water source to fight fires on the estate - and said he reported directly to ANC leaders, including Ramaphosa.

Mbalula's comments followed Zuma's backing of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party.

In the wake of Nhleko's recording, the Presidency was approached for Ramaphosa's response to the debacle and to the former minister's statement that Ramaphosa was one of the people he had directly reported to.

In response to News24's questions, Ramaphosa's spokesperson Vincent Magwenya cited the Public Protector's report and said "any attempt to draw the president into some form of revision of the matter is an exercise in futility".

He said the March 2014 Public Protector investigation - titled "Secure in Comfort" - "exhaustively dealt with all the issues."

The chief finding in the report was that Zuma had unduly benefitted from state-funded upgrades to his homestead.

Meanwhile, Mbalula went on a public relations offensive on Tuesday evening, seeking to explain himself amid backlash from some quarters of the ANC, including party chairperson, Gwede Mantashe. 

"I think I listened very carefully to what [the secretary-general] said. I thought he was carried away by yourselves (the media). He saw your cameras, he got carried away and said things he should not have said," Mantashe said, as a few ANC members chuckled in the background.

"It's an issue that you have to deal with internally... that when you lead, you count every word you say. If you don't, you catch fire."

In one of the TV interviews, as a way of explaining himself, Mbalula used the old Xhosa adage: "IsiXhosa asitolikwa", which loosely means one cannot translate isiXhosa because you may risk being lost in translation. 

He also said he had been looking to speak to Mantashe over his comments in the media. In an interview on eNCA, Mbalula was asked about Nhleko's voice note. 

He said he understood Nhleko's reaction.

"If I was Nathi Nhleko and someone says that I was on a platform, sweating and explaining a lie and it hits in my skin (sic), I'd react the same," Mbalula said. 

"Depending on modesty and what kind of person you are, if you're a cadre of the ANC you'll call the SG and say I didn't expect you to say that. I was not addressing a media conference; I was talking to ANC supporters. And when I talk to ANC members and supporters, I don't sugarcoat issues."

Speaking to Newzroom Afrika on Wednesday, Nhleko said the work undertaken at Zuma's Nkandla homestead at the time related to security features.

He said the determination that the R4-million amenity was a fire pool was made by engineers. 

Nhleko mentioned one of the engineers only by surname - Oberholzer - and said he had never met him before.

He added that when he was the police minister in the fifth administration, Parliament had already instructed that a determination be made on security issues, one of which was the fire pool.