King Goodwill Zwelethini’s Ingonyama Trust is trying to convince the Land Claims Court that land acquired by his ‘subjects’ in a claims process should be given to the trust, according to Rapport. It notes five communities have instituted claims on 11 000ha of land bordering the Ingonyama Trust area and 30 owners have agreed in principle to sell the land for R760m to the state, but the Ingonyama Trust put a spoke in the wheel by demanding that the ‘subjects’ should not be able to acquire the land as independent communities.

The Land Claims Court was urged to give effect to Zulu customary law and the wishes of the Zulu nation to prevent ‘conflict, chaos and bloodshed’ that could result from giving the land to independent communities.

The trust argues that when the communities were forced off the land in question in the Melmoth area decades ago, they moved onto Zulu land and most of them currently reside on trust land. The Entembeni, Emakhasaneni and Mthonjaneni communities told the court they want to acquire the land in the communities’ own names.

The report notes that should the court accede to the trust’s demands, it would mean the trust would acquire land of significant value when it was never a claimant in the process.

Judgment was reserved.

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