The ITB’s new chief executive, Vela Mngwengwe. (Agriculture, land reform and rural development department)
Land Reform Minister Thoko Didiza has appointed a new chief executive at the troubled Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB) as part of her attempt to reform the institution, which controls nearly three million hectares of land in KwaZulu-Natal.
Advocate Vela Mngwengwe, an official of the department who had previously acted as the ministry’s appointee to the ITB, began work at the board’s Pietermaritzburg head office on 1 August.
Mngwengwe’s appointment is aimed at bringing some level of stability to the ITB, which has received a series of unfavorable audit opinions from the auditor general and is currently under fire in parliament over poor corporate governance. It will also resolve the embarrassing situation in which the ITB currently has two acting chief executives.
Last year, ITB chairperson Jerome Ngwenya placed the chief executive, Lucas Mkhwanazi, on special leave and replaced him with human resources executive Lucky Gabela. But the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration ordered that Mkhwanazi and his colleagues be reinstated, leaving Ngwenya with egg on his face.
After the expiry of the term of office of the board, Didiza appointed a number of acting board members to assist in stabilising the entity, and seconded officials from the department to try to sort out its finances.
A source close to the matter said the appointment of Mngwengwe would be followed by that of a new chief financial officer to oversee attempts to bring the ITB’s spending in line with its mandate and to ensure compliance with the Public Finance Management Act.
“The minister is bringing in somebody with the capacity and expertise to make sure that the finances of the ITB are brought in line with government prescripts,” the source said. “With an effective chief financial officer and chief executive officer in place, along with the interim board appointments, there will be the capacity to turn the institution around.”
It also appears that the ongoing tensions in the Zulu royal house over the succession to the throne of Misuzulu kaZwelithini, a son of Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu, who died in March, will ensure that Ngwenya retains his post.
Ngwenya, who was appointed by the late monarch, is understood to have cemented relations with the presumptive king, and with the faction opposing him becoming monarch.
“The chairperson has managed to establish himself with both camps for now. This means that he is on solid ground whatever the outcome,” the source said.
Ngwenya has defied Didiza’s instruction that the ITB abide by a high court ruling that its residential lease programme be halted and that all residents who had paid the lease fees since their permission to occupy certificates were converted to leases in 2012 be refunded.
Last month he served notice on the Rural Women’s Movement, the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution and some residents of ITB land who had successfully challenged the lease programme that he would appeal the ruling.
In a notice of application for leave to appeal, Ngwenya said the ITB and the Ingonyama Trust intended to take the matter to the supreme court of appeal, should the application for leave to appeal fail in the high court.
Ngwenya said the court had erred in finding that the ITB had acted unlawfully in introducing the programme and that the leases violated the constitution. The court had also erred by distinguishing between residential and commercial leases being held on ITB land.
And it had “erroneously held” that the residents of ITB land had been “prejudiced” by the introduction of leases, “without interrogating same and sufficient expert evidence”.
“The court erred in relying on unsubstantiated allegations of the applicants that they were intimidated in the absence of any evidence. This was a clear misdirection in respect of a disputed fact,” Ngwenya said.
Didiza’s spokesperson, Reggie Ngcobo, confirmed the appointment of Mngwengwe.
Ngcobo would not be drawn on Ngwenya’s defiance of Didiza’s instruction not to appeal the court ruling. “After careful reading of the judgment and the reasoning of the court in arriving at its judgment, the minister is of the view that it is not in the interest of the government and the people residing on Trust held land to appeal the judgment.”Ngwenya did not respond to calls and an email from the Mail & Guardian.
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