CASAC WELCOMES THE WITHDRAWAL OF THE INGONYAMA TRUST BOARD’S APPEAL AGAINST THE FAR-REACHING 2021 KZN LAND RIGHTS JUDGMENT.

The Ingonyama Trust has withdrawn its appeal against a far-reaching KwaZulu-Natal High Court judgment which found its extortion of rent from ordinary people with customary ownership rights to be unlawful.  The court ordered that all future rental of residential land must stop and that all rent paid thus far must be refunded to the customary owners.  It also ordered that the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development must provide proof of land rights to customary rights holders.  Until a new system of recorded land rights is put in place by government, it ordered that existing Permission to Occupy certificates must be issued.  The Ingonyama Trust has used the lacuna in land rights records to insist on leases as the only form of tenure security available thereby forcing the poorest of the poor to pay annual and escalating rentals for land they already own.

The appeal was due to be heard in the SCA in Bloemfontein today (15 November 2023).  Its withdrawal means that all the remedial actions ordered by the High Court, such as the repayment of rent and the issuing of recorded land rights must now be fulfilled.  CASAC, one of the applicants in the challenge to the leases, welcomes this withdrawal.  It is a refreshing change from the previous practice of endless denial, obfuscation and lawfare by the Ingonyama Trust.  It bodes well for the integrity of the new Board under its Chairperson Inkosi Thanduyise Mzimela

In terms of the Ingonyama Trust Act of 1994 (enacted in the dying days of apartheid) the Zulu King, as sole trustee, is entrusted with 2,8 million hectares of land in the former homeland of Kwa Zulu. Most of this land is densely settled by poor South Africans who bore the brunt of the Land Act and forced removals.  The Trust Act preserves their pre-existing land rights and requires the trust to act in their best interests.  Financial controls require that only 10% of the Trust’s income may be used for administration, meaning that 90% of its income must be used for the benefit of the beneficiaries, being the people who live on the land.  These controls were repeatedly flouted by the previous Ingonyama Trust Board leading to endless clashes with the Portfolio Committee in Parliament and qualified audits from the Auditor-General.

CASAC is delighted that King Misuzulu and the Board have chosen accountability over past practices that preyed on the residual assets of the very beneficiaries of the Trust.  While previous judgments by the courts including the Constitutional Court have confirmed the strength of customary land ownership, this judgment is the first to explicitly confirm that customary law ownership vests in families and individuals, rather than in traditional leaders or state entities.

We must now ensure that this case will have positive results not only for rent repayments and land rights records in KwaZulu-Natal but also for the millions of people with insecure tenure rights in other provinces.  Their customary land ownership has been under threat from policies that treat traditional leaders as the ‘rightful owners’ of communal land and elevate their interests over those of ordinary people.  The history of the Ingonyama Trust Act’s interpretation and abuse provides a sober warning of the kinds of rent-seeking behaviour that such policies elicit and mask.

Sadly, some of the brave individual applicants from KwaZulu-Natal who challenged the leases imposed on them have died since this case was launched in 2018.  The founder of the Rural Women’s Movement, MamSizani Ngubane, who was a co-applicant, passed on during the pandemic. But many millions of South Africans stand to benefit from the judgment of the KwaZulu-Natal High Court that now stands. We celebrate with them and hope that together we can ensure that the remedial terms of the judgment are properly implemented and enforced.

For further enquiries:

Lawson Naidoo

073 158 5736