Land case labelled 'direct attack' on Zulu king
The Ingonyama Trust has condemned a court bid to compel it to stop collecting rent from occupiers of land that falls under it as a ‘direct attack’ on Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini and his subjects, according to a Sunday Times report. The trust was responding to an application filed by the Legal Resources Centre on behalf of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac), the Rural Women’s Movement and seven informal land rights holders who are challenging the conversion of informal land rights to long-term lease agreements.
If the application succeeds, notes the report, the trust could be ordered to pay back millions it has collected in rent for nearly a decade from people living on land it controls on behalf of Zwelithini.
In an affidavit filed on Friday, Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB) chair Jerome Ngwenya says the application is ‘a direct attack against his majesty the king of the Zulu nation and others’.
‘The relief sought by the applicants is designed to strip the Zulu nation of its dignity,’ he says – and is also, he adds, an attack on the institution of traditional leadership. The Ingonyama Trust, whose sole trustee is the Zulu monarch, was established in 1994 to be the custodian of 2.8m hectares of land previously administered by the former KZN government.
In their application filed in the KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg) in November, Casac, the women’s movement and the land rights holders are challenging the conversion of permission-to-occupy or informal land rights to long-term lease agreements.
A number of people hold a permission-to-occupy right on land registered under the trust. The envisaged lease agreements would be for 40 years and could cost the occupier between R1 500 and R1 700, depending on the extent of the land. The court has yet to rule on the matter.
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Government appears to have cut the ITB loose, choosing not to join its defence in the matter. The National Department of Rural Development & Land Affairs was a co-respondent with the board in the application, notes a Mail & Guardian report. Thabiso Mbhense, of the Legal Resources Centre, reportedly said the LRC had been informed that the Rural Development Department would file an affidavit outlining its reasons for not opposing the matter.
The KZN Co-Operative Governance & Traditional Affairs Department would also not oppose the application. ‘This is significant,’ said Mbhense. ‘We now know very well that we are only fighting the ITB on the matter and not the state.’
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
