‘This is no different to colonial rule’

THE IFP has accused President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration of behaving like the apartheid and colonial regimes by trying to repeal the Ingonyama Trust Act as a means of stripping King Goodwill Zwelithini of his land.

IFP national chairperson Blessed Gwala said the king was right to express his anger at the presidential advisory panel on land reform and agriculture appointed by Ramaphosa, which has, among other things, recommended that the government repeal or review the Ingonyama Trust Board, which administers KwaZulu-Natal’s 2.8 million hectares of communal rural land on the king’s behalf.

Gwala said people in the province had fought many historical wars, such as the Battle of Blood River, mainly on land issues. “But now this government wants to do the same thing. Instead of supporting the people to keep the land, it wants to take it away.

“This means there is no difference from colonial rule,” said Gwala.

In its report, which was released in May, the panel, chaired by African Farmers Association President Vuyo Mahlati, accused the Ingonyama Trust Act of perpetuating “the existence of KwaZulu-Natal as a homeland within a unitary state 25 years into a new democratic order”.

The panel further stated that the government should immediately take over the land from the trust and administer it on behalf of the country’s citizens.

“This could be realised through appropriately constituted land boards. It would ensure that the administration of this land is brought in line with land administration in the rest of the country,” the recommendations read.

Addressing the Isivivane Ceremony in Nongoma, the king said the panel was provoking both him and the Zulu nation.

“I was never consulted about what I heard. I hear that your land is going to subdivided and handed to people, some of whom are captured as there is a state capture commission,” Zwelithini said.

Questions were sent to Mahlati’s office, but his personal assistant said she could not respond to questions as he was “facilitating a women’s event”.

Attempts to get hold of Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Khusela Diko, also proved futile as her phone went unanswered.