Ingonyama Trust to challenge ruling
‘We want the land to be under the king under one title deed, and we are going to the Constitutional Court’
KING Goodwill Zwelithini’s supporters in northern KwaZulu-Natal said they would go to the Constitutional Court to challenge a judgment against the Ingonyama Trust Board, which found that the King could not order his subjects to share land that communities had claimed.
Five communities who were removed from agricultural land in Melmoth, KwaZulu-Natal, decades ago lodged a land claim several years ago.
The landowners were willing to sell the 11 000 hectares of land to the state for R760 million.
But before the claim could be settled, the Ingonyama Trust intervened and argued that the land should be held by the trust to help all who benefited from the land claim.
But the Entembeni, Makhasaneni and Mthonjaneni communities did not agree to this and approached the Land Claims Court.
According to media reports, the court had found in a recent judgment that it was the claimants, and not the trust, who had a valid claim for the land.
Speaking on behalf of claimants, who wanted the Ingonyama Trust Board to be in charge of the claimed land, Mandla Zulu, who is a journalist, said they would go to the Constitutional Court to challenge the judgment.
“We went to court as we believed that we belong under the Ingonyama Trust, therefore we want the title deed for the land to be held by the trust.
“Obviously we are going to appeal, and we are going to the Constitutional Court,” he said.
Zulu said that although the matter was heard in Randburg, Joburg, he testified on behalf of the Intembeni Community Trust, which supported the Ingonyama Trust, when the court sat in Ulundi.
“I testified on behalf of claimants under Inkosi Sipho Mpungose and my community in Melmoth.
“We wanted to protect the land from being sold by people to white farmers, which is why we want the land to be under the king under one title deed,” said Zulu.
He said those who were opposed to the Ingonyama Trust wanted the land to fall under the Makhasaneni Community Trust and Mthonjaneni Community Trust.
The Ingonyama Trust’s lawyer, Philani Jafta, declined to comment on the matter.
The chairperson of Ingonyama Trust, Judge Jerome Ngwenya, asked for emailed questions, but declined to respond yesterday.
Inkosi Sipho Mpungose said: “We want the land to be returned to those it was taken from – the Amakhosi.”
A representative of the Makhasaneni Trust declined to talk to the media yesterday, saying the matter was back in court today.
“Although the court has completed the matter, it has not been finalised,” said the representative, who declined to be named.
We wanted to protect the land from being sold by people to white farmers