A community on the KZN south coast is taking on the Ingonyama Trust Board over what it says is the illegal sale of its land, according to a Business Day report. Members of the Luthuli clan, who once administered leases in the area through the Umnini Trust, have given the Ingonyama Trust and Inkosi Phathisizwe Luthuli an ultimatum to stop selling their land or they will head to court over the matter.

An irate Nhlanhla Luthuli, one of the members of the Umnini Trust, said that his trust had enlisted the services of the Legal Resources Centre in their fight with the Ingonyama Trust.

Many people were buying land from the chief and Ingonyama Trust Board when they should be buying land from Umnini Trust, he said. The land has belonged to the Luthuli clan since the 1800s, he added, and was administered through the community-led Umnini Trust.

But after the establishment of the Ingonyama Trust Board in 1994, things changed, allegedly without notice.

‘We have evidence from people who have been building their homes here that they were made to pay the Ingonyama Trust Board and (the local) Chief Luthuli for leases. As far as we are concerned neither the chief nor Ingonyama Trust has the right to sell the land and we want them to stop selling our land with immediate effect,’ he said.

Full Business Day report