King wants court in on trust’s case
New land bill will switch control of Zulu nation’s land from Ingonyama Trust to the government
WITH plans afoot for a meeting between President Cyril Ramaphosa and King Goodwill Zwelithini to discuss the Ingonyama Trust issue, its board says the courts, not government, should make the decision on what happens to it.
Ingonyama Trust board chairperson Judge Jerome Ngwenya said that unless the government withdrew the Communal Land Tenure Bill, the courts should be the final arbiter.
The trust took over the administration of the land traditionally owned by the Zulu people just before the advent of democracy. Since 1994, it has controlled 3 million hectares of land, having been given ownership by the outgoing apartheid government.
But the trust’s land is under threat from the government’s Communal Land Tenure Bill which could see the trust scrapped and its land surrendered to the state if the government has its way.
The trust, said Ngwenya, was hoping that an engagement with the president would put the matter to rest once and for all. Ngwenya also called on former president Kgalema Motlanthe to retract comments he made about traditional leaders at the ANC’S land summit in Sandton last month because they gave rise to “unnecessary tension”.
Motlanthe angered traditional leaders when he said that many of them behaved like “tin pot dictators” because they referred to themselves as the owners of the land.
Deputy Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Obed Bapela later clarified that Motlanthe was simply reflecting the views of people on the ground as conveyed to the government. But this has not taken the sting out of the discussion.
Ngwenya said they had requested an audience with the president to “get a better understanding” of why the government wanted to scrap the trust.
“The meeting will also (aim) to get confirmation on whether this is still the government’s position,” Ngwenya said.
The king recently invited Motlanthe to a meeting in Durban to explain the recommendations to remove the land from under the auspices of the trust and place it under government control, but he did not attend.
However, Ngwenya said he understood that the invitation extended to Motlanthe was still open.
“If Mr Motlanthe accepts it that would be better, but if he doesn’t nobody will force him to,” said Ngwenya.
He added that King Zwelithini’s office was open to anybody who wanted to have constructive engagement, including the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Zweli Mkhize.
Earlier this year, King Zwelithini called on the members of the Zulu nation to donate R5 or more towards the legal battle he planned to wage against Parliament if it decided to scrap the Ingonyama Trust Act.
Ngwenya said the trust’s legal representatives had advised it to test its views in court and the board would follow this advice.
Royal household spokesperson Prince Thulani Zulu and Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Khusela Diko, were not available for comment at the time of going to press. impepho