Ingonyama Trust taken to court by residents

RESIDENTS who live on land held by the Ingonyama Trust have launched a legal challenge against it and the board over the conversion of informal land rights to long-term lease agreements.

In court papers, Lawson Naidoo of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac), said since 2007 Ingonyama Trust had been “extorting money” from residents and making them sign lease agreements and pay rentals in order to remain on land held by the trust.

The application, filed in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday, was brought by the Legal Resources Centre on behalf of Casac, the Rural Women’s Movement and seven informal land rights holders.

The other respondents are the KwaZulu-Natal Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC and the minister of Rural Development and Land Reform.

Naidoo said the primary form of residential tenure for persons on rural land including land held by the trust was “permission to occupy” (PTO) rights, which were administered by the minister, granted exclusive occupancy and userights that were perpetual, and did not require rental payments for residential purposes.

However ,in 2007, the trust stopped issuing PTOs and began converting existing PTOs to long-term lease agreements where rentals had to be paid for residential occupation.

Naidoo said this was in contravention of customary law and PTO rights and the trust had assumed and exercised land administration powers that belonged to the minister and the MEC.

Naidoo said despite the conversion from PTO rights to lease agreements being reported in the media and in the trust’s annual reports, the government had not taken action.

He said while the trust claimed the lease agreements were an upgrade to PTOs, the PTOs and customary rights were “stronger in law” and less burdensome on residents than leases.

The applicants want the court to declare the conduct of the trust unlawful, direct the authorities to establish a process to allow residents to cancel lease agreements and recover rentals, direct the authorities to issue and register certificates of land rights, or PTOs, and are seeking an order declaring that the minister had failed in her constitutional and statutory obligations.

Judge Jerome Ngwenya, Ingonyama Trust board chairperson, said he had not yet seen the application, and Cogta and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform had not responded to requests for comment at the time of going to print.