King Misuzulu ka Zwelithini.
Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB) chairperson Jerome Ngwenya has defended the dealings of the body’s investment wing, Ingonyama Holdings, denying claims that money was being syphoned from the body into dubious investments.
But he confirmed that the ITB is now in dispute with its partners over their failure to deliver on promised investments on the basis of which they were paid R41 million.
Ngwenya did so in a report he released to the media on Thursday on the instruction of King Misuzulu ka Zwelithini after the Mail & Guardian reported that R41 million had been paid to lawyers and a consultancy that was only four months old at the time the payments started.
Ngwenya defended the payments, saying they had been made in fees to the consultants and members of a master collaboration agreement (MCA) team, who were in the process of accessing R300 million locally and R10 billion abroad for the trust and Ingonyama Holdings.
“These were paid to three legal firms, one trust and one tax consulting firm, and to members of companies of the MCA team. To our knowledge there is no money lost or syphoned. Neither has the attorneys failed to account. The recipients can attest to this,” he said.
“Resolutions in support for these payments were passed and payments were executed via the correct channels of the trust. Since its inception, Ingonyama Trust has never had a situation where its funds have disappeared or got syphoned off as is claimed in some quarters.”
Ngwenya said that the MCA group was securing funding from an individual who had been “introduced as one of the wealthiest men in the world” and whose business footprint extended to 44 countries.
But there had been delays, caused in part by negative publicity, and there was currently a dispute over the failure to deliver on the projects promised by the MCA group, which had failed to provide documentation to the ITB at the end of January.
“Noting the reasons for the failure to meet the target in accordance with the MCA, a dispute was declared on behalf of the Ingonyama Group. That is where the process is currently,” he said.
Ngwenya accused the M&G of being part of an agenda against the ITB, and of being funded by NGO groups that had taken the ITB to court.
He said the publication was part of a “well orchestrated campaign” to portray the ITB in a negative manner. Ngwenya issued the report as part of making public the entity’s finances and programmes after the intervention by King Misuzulu, its sole patron.
A spokesperson for the king’s office confirmed that the report into the ITB’s workings and finances — which he had instructed Ngwenya to make public within seven days — had been received by the monarch.
It has also been presented to the office of his traditional prime minister, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, and was being handed over to the province’s premier, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, the KwaZulu-Natal legislature and the province’s house of traditional leaders.
In his address to the opening of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, the king said that he would be exercising his responsibility as the sole trustee of the Ingonyama Trust, set up to administer nearly three million hectares of traditionally controlled land on behalf of the monarchy, to ensure that its affairs were transparent and that it benefited people living on its land.