The African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal says the Ingonyama Trust Board is accountable to the government, whose land it administers. The trust controls about 2.8 million hectares of land in the province, the bulk of which is in rural areas.
On Sunday ANC National Executive Committe member Zweli Mkhize and the party’s KwaZulu-Natal provincial leadership, engaged with Amakhosi from eThekwini, as part of the party’s preparation for next year’s general elections.
According to the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, the Ingonyama Trust Board operates just like all other government entities and reports to the government. The trust was established just before the first general elections in 1994.
According to the Ingonyama Trust Act, the trust holds the land for the benefit, material welfare and social well-being of communities living on the land.
ANC provincial spokesperson Nomagugu Smelane Zulu says it is the government that appoints the Ingonyama Trust Board. “Ingonyama Trust Board is holding land on behalf of government and there must never be confusion about that. Ingonyama Trust Board is not synonymous to Isilo and it is one matter that we’ve always wanted to clarify. Ingonyama Trust board is an institution of government, it should be held accountable and should be accounting to government and we understand that it has not been happening in quite a long time. We believe that government is now actually trying to bring it back to account. The only thing that had not happened is that they have not as a board been held accountable as they should be accountable like Eskom, like SAA like all that.”
The main source of income for the trust is rent income it collects from businesses and mines doing business on the land under its jurisdiction. In 2016, its total revenue was just above R128 million. Last year, the High Level Panel headed by former President Kgalema Motlanthe recommended the Ingonyama Trust Act be repealed, or amended, and that the trust be dissolved.
Speaking to Amakhosi from eThekwini, Mkhize assured Amakhosi that land under them would not be expropriated. Mkhize re-iterated that the High Level Panel chaired by Motlanthe was commissioned by Parliament, and not the ruling party.
“There is a report by former President Mr Montlanthe which was talking about some problems in Ingonyama Trust, but we had not discussed it as the ANC. Although he took us through the report during ANC meeting but it does not mean that we accepted that report as an ANC position. It is a report that is still to be processed by Parliament.”
