Court Challenge to the Ingonyama Trust
A full bench of the Pietermaritzburg High Court (Judges Madondo, Mnguni and Olsen) heard an application on 9 and 10 December 2020, by the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC), the Rural Women’s Movement (RWM) and seven informal land rights holders challenging the compulsory signing of lease agreements by the Ingonyama Trust Board. The Applicants were represented by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), and Advocates Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, Sheldon Magardie and Janice Bleazard.
While CASAC and the RWM are acting in the public interest, for the seven individuals, this fight is personal and they include single mothers, factory workers, pensioners, farmers and fathers trying to provide for their families. They have worked the land for which they are now forced to pay rent; they have built their homes and their lives on this land along with the other 5.2 million residents on land held in trust by the Ingonyama Trust. The security of tenure of 5.2 million South Africans on their land and homes is what is at stake in this case.
