JOHANNESBURG: South African President Jacob Zuma , under fire over renovations worth $23 million at his rural farmhouse, on Monday defended the taxpayer-funded upgrade ahead of elections, saying his wife was raped there in 1998.

"Those who say I don't need security? it's not like we were dealing with a normal situation. People broke in and raped my wife," Zuma told a media briefing.

The incident occurred before he took over as president in 2009, he said, adding the culprits were "arrested, charged, convicted".

Zuma did not specify which of his four wives were raped at the time, but analysts reminded detractors that it was illegal for rape victims to be identified in South African law.

"I don't think there is anything abnormal," he said after huge outcries earlier about the upgrades, which include a swimming pool, a helipad, private clinic and an amphitheatre.

Zuma was speaking for the first time about allegations that he and his family had benefitted unduly from upgrades worth $23 million at his Nkandla residence, as found by an investigation of the public protector's office.

Last month, public protector Thuli Madonsela recommended in her report that Zuma pay back the costs of the upgrades to the state.

Zuma, 72, said the rape occurred while he was still a provincial minister in KwaZulu-Natal before he became deputy president under Thabo Mbeki, the then president, who in turn succeeded Nelson Mandela.

Questions were being raised on Monday about why Zuma had only made the revelation now, when the matter had caused great public outcries for months now.

Opposition political parties have also demanded why he was doing this just two days before the general elections on May 7.

Madonsela's report said that the upgrades began in 2009, a decade after the alleged rape, raising doubts about why the security upgrades were considered necessary only after such a long period.

Zuma dismissed the upgrade issue as one that would affect the ANC at the polls on Wednesday as he seeks to be re-elected for a second term as president.

Zuma said no report, either from government or the public protector, had found that he was guilty of corruption or misusing funds, adding that his job was to run the country, and not to manage construction sites.

An attempt to debate the matter in parliament last week was halted when majority African National Congress members successfully deferred it until after the elections.