The Ingonyama Trust is at risk of losing control over about three million hectares of KwaZulu-Natal rural land after a Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruling.
In June last year, the Pietermaritzburg high court ruled that the Ingonyama Trust’s practice of imposing rent on households living on rural land controlled by the entity was unlawful.
The trust, whose sole trustee is now Zulu monarch, King Misuzulu kaZwelithini, then lodged an application for leave to appeal the Pietermaritzburg high court’s ruling.
Trust’s application has “no prospect of success”
However, the SCA ruled that the trust’s application has “no prospect of success”.
The trust was dragged to court by the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) and the Rural Women’s Movement, after a group of rural women complained that the trust has converted their Permission To Occupy (PTO) agreements into lease contracts, requiring them to pay rent for houses built on the entity’s land.
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While the Zulu king’s spokesperson, Prince Thulani Zulu, on Wednesday said the royal family will issue a statement once it has discussed the SCA judgment, the DA called on the trust to “immediately” stop collecting rent.
“The trust is now required to stop forthwith the practice of signing lease agreements with communal land occupiers and pay back all rentals that it has received to date,” said DA deputy national spokesperson on land reform and rural development.
Recommendation to have Ingonyama Trust Act amended or repealed
In 2019, a panel of experts led by former president, Kgalema Motlanthe, recommended that the Ingonyama Trust Act, which grants the Ingonyama Trust power over the province’s rural land, should either be amended or repealed.
The panel’s report is currently being processed by Parliament.
Mbabana called on Parliament to begin the process of amending the Ingonyoma Trust Act — which came about as a result of pressure from IFP leader, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, in the pre-1994 negotiations, paving the way for the country’s first democratic elections.
The ruling now places the onus on Parliament and the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) to come up with legislation that will entrench and protect the rights of communal land occupants.
Failure to do so will betray our rural population, who have spent years fighting for their rights to land ownership.
The SCA’s ruling comes at a time when the ANC in KZN is under pressure to demonstrate support for the Zulu king and the province’s traditional leadership ahead of the 2024 national elections.
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Despite the ANC national leadership having spoken out against practices that deprive rural communities of land tenure rights, the party’s provincial secretary in KZN, Bheki Mtolo, said the ANC will resist attempts to strip the Ingonyama Trust of its current powers over rural land.
The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal can therefore confirm to the Ingonyama Trust Board, traditional leaders, izinduna and all communities that the land under the Ingonyama Trust are safe and no one will touch it. The ANC will remain the first line of defence of our land which belongs to the indigenous black people.
