Durban - Recently crowned Zulu King Misuzulu kaZwelithini is expected to meet with members of the royal family today to discuss the Ingonyama Trust.
The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal this week said there were no plans to seize the land under the trust, after media reports that the ANC’s Integrity Commission had ordered the governing party to use its powers in government to urgently repeal the Ingonyama Trust Act.
Since the death of King Goodwill Zwelithini, some traditional leaders had raised concerns that the state would intensify its efforts to disband the trust and take over the 2.8 million hectares of land it owns.
Zulu royal family spokesperson Prince Thulani Zulu said the issue would be one of the matters discussed by the king and the family today. “We can reveal more information once the king and the family come together and talk about the issues,” he said.
The trust issue has had the government at loggerheads with the province’s traditional leaders, the king and the IFP and KZN ANC, among others.
Acting on a recommendation from a panel headed by former president Kgalema Motlanthe, Parliament a few years ago sought to repeal the act which gave birth to the trust in 1994, but government abandoned
this plan in 2018 after a backlash from the late king, some of his people and traditional leaders opposed to the move.
On Monday, ANC provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo said: “The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal can therefore confirm to the Ingonyama Trust Board, traditional leaders, izinduna and all communities that the land under Ingonyama Trust is safe and no one will touch it.”
Mtolo said that in July 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa met with the late king and Ramaphosa had “clarified the position of the ANC and the government on the issue of Ingonyama Trust”.
“He informed the king that land expropriation does not include the 13% under Ingonyama Trust, which is controlled by traditional leaders and black people in particular.
“Critically, during that meeting His Majesty appreciated the explanation given, that both the ANC and ANC-led government had nothing to do with the recommendations on Ingonyama Trust, by the High Level Panel Report on acceleration of transformation,” Mtolo said.
Mtolo said the Ingonyama Trust land is held in trust and the monarchy is the sole trustee, and this was embraced by the 54th conference of the ANC.
He said there were small challenges with the trust, but the provincial leadership was willing to meet with the board of the trust to iron out these issues.
The IFP responded to the ANC statement, saying it finds it “difficult to take the ANC in KZN at face value when it reassures residents on Ingonyama Trust land that they will never do what they have been trying to do for years: namely, take the land from the people and place it under central government control”.
“Yet now the ANC in KZN is adamant that there are no plans to touch Ingonyama Trust land. They have even highlighted the commitment made by President Ramaphosa to the late King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu on July 6, 2018 that the land under the Ingonyama Trust would not be touched. It would remain under the trust and not be expropriated by government.
“When the president made this commitment, his colleagues in KZN openly expressed their disapproval.”