King asks Zulus to fund defence of Ingonyama
Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini has asked all Zulus to increase their donations — from R5 to at least R15 — to create a fund to fight off the government’s move to scrap the controversial Ingonyama Trust and transfer the land to local municipalities. The money will be used to mount a legal challenge and to sponsor marches and pickets in the fight against the government.
King Goodwill Zwelithini has asked all Zulus to increase their donations — from R5 to at least R15 — to create a fund to fight off the government’s move to scrap the controversial Ingonyama Trust and transfer the land to local municipalities.
The money will be used to mount a legal challenge and sponsor marches and pickets in the fight against the government. The king will unveil more activities on Wednesday.
Zwelithini and Inkatha Freedom Party leader Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi have called for a special imbizo of Zulus in Ulundi on Wednesday — the 139th anniversary of the burning of the Zulu king’s palace. They intend to “tell their subjects how they must defy government” on the explosive issue of land expropriation without compensation.
The Ingonyama Trust was established in 1994 as a special vehicle to protect about 28,000km² of land in the province. The king has criticised the government’s plan and demanded that it keep its hands off land under the trust and land under other traditional leaders.
Prince Thulani Zulu, spokesman for the king, directed all queries about the land issue to the trust’s board.
Judge Jerome Ngwenya, chairman of the board, told Business Day that the king would need the donations as he would be waging several battles to protect the land under the trust. “We have collected some money but we still need more. The king has recommended that the money be increased to at least R15 because when you go to the bank to deposit R5 you have to go inside the bank and it [the bank] charges more than R10 for each deposit.
“It is in that regard that the king is pleading for an increase in the donations from all the Zulus,” he said.
“The king will be charting the way forward and detailing what is to be expected from his subjects. He will definitely be talking about the threat posed by those who are calling for expropriation of land without compensation and what this will do to the land under the Ingonyama Trust,” Ngwenya said.
“The king is of the view that there [is] land that was forcibly taken away from the Zulu nation and amakhosi by the successive colonial and apartheid governments. The king is claiming this land. Instead of helping him to claim this land, government is busy trying to expropriate the little land under the king. He is very angry about this,” he said.
Jabulani Sithole, an independent political analyst based in KwaZulu-Natal, said it was interesting how this sensitive land issue was being politicised and how healthy debate was being curtailed.
Cosatu in KwaZulu-Natal has also called for an inclusive debate on the issue, including the land under the Ingonyama Trust as the union federation wants rural people to get title deeds for the land on which they live.