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The Ingonyama Trust has been a combustible issue lately that has driven a wedge between the monarch and the ANC.

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Sizwe sama Yende

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Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development minister Thoko Didiza has reiterated that government has no intention of taking over the administration of land under Ingonyama Trust following King Misuzulu’s threat to approach the International Court.

During a meeting with amakhosi on Thursday in Ulundi, the king said that he was going to go to see his uncle, King Mswati III, in Eswatini and begin the process of lodging a complaint in the court.

There had been fears that the government intended to usurp the powers of amakhosi to issue land permits known as permission to occupy (PTO) to their subjects. 

“I’m going to Eswatini today, to my uncle, to tell him to open a case. If they can take Jerusalem (Israel) to court, I can do the same. We want to be part of South Africa, [but] there’s talk that after elections, they will take the land,” King Misuzulu told amakhosi.

Chairperson of the KwaZulu-Natal House of Traditional and Khoisan Leaders, Inkosi Sifiso Shinga, did not attend the meeting and had asked the king to meet the house first to hear concerns and proposals it had raised about the way the Ingonyama Trust was run.

Didiza said that the king’s statement was  “worrying and concerning.”

RELATED: 'I'm not usurping amakhosi powers' - Thoko Didiza

“It will be appreciated [to know] what makes Isilo to think that the government wants to take his powers in respect of the governance of ITB (Ingonyama Trust Board). As far as government is concerned, Isilo is the sole Trustee of Ingonyama Trust and the Board, chaired by the King [who] manages the land on behalf of Amakhosi and communities whose land is under ITB,” Didiza said.

“This situation has not changed. If it were to change, an amendment to the legislation will need to be done by Parliament. So, the matter of going to the International Court does not arise as far as government is concerned because nowhere has government indicated that it will take the powers of Isilo nor the ITB land,” she added.

The Ingonyama Trust has been a combustible issue lately that has driven a wedge between the monarch and the ANC.

KZN ANC chairperson, Bheki Mtolo, has accused King Misuzulu’s prime minister and IFP mayor of Zululand District, Thulasizwe Buthelezi, of attempting to steal R40 million from the trust.

“Last month, [Buthelezi] demanded that R40 million from the Ingonyama Trust be transferred to the IFP’s account. On the 19 of April at 7:10pm I sent him a message and asked: ‘What are you going to do with the R40 million from Ingonyama Trust?” Mtolo

The king’s utterances follow Didiza’s denial, early this week, in response to Buthelezi’s statement that she had intentions of usurping the powers of traditional leaders to issue the PTOs.

Buthelezi had said that the ANC was reneging on a promise they made to his predecessor and former IFP leader, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, that they would not temper with land under the Ingonyama Trust.

Ingonyama Trust is entrusted with 2.8 million hectares of land in KwaZulu-Natal, which is equivalent to 30% of the province’s land surface.

The management of the Ingonyama Trust land has, however, has riled up some of the king’s subject because they were forced to pay rent instead of being given PTOs.

This precipitated litigation by the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution (Casac), the Rural Women’s Movement, and individual land occupiers in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in 2018.

The applicants wanted to stop these lease agreements the trust was entering into with the subjects and revert to the permission to occupy system.

The trust began cancelling permission-to-occupy agreements in 2007 in exchange for 40-year lease agreements. The leases cost an occupier between R1500 and R7000 every year, depending on the size of the plot. 

Ingonyama Trust had been collecting more than R100 million a year in rentals. Casas won the case and the Pietermaritzburg High Court ordered that all future rental of residential land must stop and that all rent paid thus far must be refunded to the customary land owners.

The Ingonyama Trust Board backpedalled on its appeal in the  Bloemfontein Supreme Court of Appeal in November 2023.