[Image: Ingonyama Trust Board / Facebook]
Parliament has called for a review of the legislation governing the Ingonyama Trust.
This follows the Land Reform and Rural Development Committee’s urgent request for the trust to comply with a court ruling that overturned its decision to lease land to residents. The trust currently oversees approximately 2.8 million hectares of land in KwaZulu-Natal, managing it on behalf of the Zulu monarch and the communities residing there.
The KwaZulu-Natal Ingonyama Trust Act was established in 1994, creating the Ingonyama Trust with the Zulu king serving as its sole trustee.
Land reform and rural development committee chairperson Albert Mncwango told a media briefing in Parliament on Monday that perhaps the time has come to review policy.
Reform seems to be needed following an oversight visit to the trust by the committee, as well as recent “governance and legal challenges, including the unlawful suspension of board members by the king”.
Mncwango said that beneficiaries must be central in the review, telling the media that “one of the things that came from the oversight visit is the need for legislative review. So the issue of the material benefits to those communities listed in the legislation is also vitally important.”
He said the trust had a list of about 300 communities that were beneficiaries to its operations and the committee also engaged with some of those communities.
The Trust owns 29.67% of the land in KwaZulu-Natal, which is equivalent to 28,000 square kilometres. The establishment of the Ingonyama Trust resulted from a secret deal between the National Party and the Inkatha Freedom Party that convinced the IFP to set aside its planned boycott of elections.
