Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza has finally appointed a full nine-member Ingonyama Trust Board, which will be headed by King Misuzulu ka Zwelithini’s nominee, Thanduyise Mzimela.
Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza has finally appointed a full nine-member Ingonyama Trust Board, which will be headed by King Misuzulu ka Zwelithini’s nominee, Thanduyise Mzimela.
Didiza announced the establishment of the new board, which will serve a four-year term, on Monday, with Linda Zama, a member of the interim board appointed by Didiza in 2020, as its deputy chairperson.
Didiza said she had appointed the new board in terms of the Ingonyama Trust Act, passed in 1994 to create the entity, in consultation with the House of Traditional Leaders, the KwaZulu-Natal premier and the Zulu monarch.
Other members are amakhosi Israel Tembe, Phallang Molefe, Sibonelo Mkhize, Thandi Dlamini, architect and entrepreneur Dandy Matamela, Nomsa Zulu and Lisa Del Grande.
The appointments come at a time when the king has stated his intent to ensure that the ITB and the Ingonyama Trust are open to greater public scrutiny and oversight and that they deliver on their community development mandate.
After the Mail & Guardian’s revelations about the spending by Ingonyama Holdings, the monarch ordered the then chairperson, Jerome Ngwenya, to publicly account for a dubious R41 million investment made by the company. Ngwenya, a director of Ingonyama Holdings, defended the investment, saying there was now a dispute between IH and investment company AIN Private Capital.
The king then removed Ngwenya from the post, to which he had been appointed 20 years ago by his late father, King Goodwill Zwelithini ka Bhekuzulu.
Ngwenya has since filed notice of his intention to take Didiza’s 2020 appointment of an interim board on appeal at court, despite the king giving him written instructions not to appoint any further lawyers or sign any contracts on behalf of the ITB.
The announcement by Didiza comes despite a revolt against the monarch’s decision to replace Ngwenya with Mzimela by both Ngwenya and Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the king’s traditional prime minister.
Buthelezi is said to have declined to sign an affidavit in support of Misuzulu in the Pretoria high court challenge to his appointment as king by his rival, Prince Simakade Zulu, to try to force Ngwenya’s reinstatement.
The king last week wrote to Buthelezi accusing him of using the court case to try to manipulate him into re-appointing Ngwenya. The monarch said he was appointing a new legal team to represent him in the matter, which is being heard in Pretoria on 31 May.
Earlier this month, Buthelezi also boycotted an imbizo convened by the king to introduce Mzimela to amakhosi, a move which is understood to have strengthened the monarch’s resolve over the appointment.
Buthelezi is also understood to have threatened to resign as traditional prime minister over Mzimela’s appointment — something he denied at the weekend — and has called a meeting with amakhosi about the matter in Empangeni on Friday.
At a media briefing on Sunday, Buthelezi denied both that he had threatened to resign as traditional prime minister, or that the king had asked him to do so. He said he had not benefited financially from the position and that he had “never clung” to the role that he had played under three Zulu kings.
“There would be no humiliation for me to relinquish it now, having served loyally for almost 70 years. I would have on regrets,” Buthelezi said.
Although Buthelezi has played a key role in the affairs of the Zulu monarchy, he may have miscalculated in his attempts to force his will on the current king, who has made it clear that he wants the ITB’s existence to directly benefit his subjects.
The functioning of the ITB has a direct effect on people living on nearly three million hectares of land falling under the Ingonyama Trust, which administers the land on behalf of the king.
The body raises revenue from commercial leases, mining rights and other levies and receives just under R23 million a year from Didiza’s ministry for its operating costs.
A portion of the revenue raised is meant to fund development for the people living on tribal land, but a dispute between Ngwenya and the Auditor General of South Africa and parliament meant this has never been audited.
There is also an ongoing dispute between Ngwenya and the legislature over the surrender of revenue raised from mining rights to the Central Revenue Fund, to which a portion of what is received from mining houses operating on ITB land is meant to be paid.
During Ngwenya’s tenure, the ITB also introduced residential leases for people living on ITB land who had previously been granted permission to occupy certificates, a controversial move which was successfully challenged in the high court by residents and NGOs.
Ngwenya had appealed the ruling at the supreme court of appeal — and had not begun the process of refunding residents as ordered by the court — but it is not clearwhether the appeal will continue under a new board and nominee.
Didiza, who was a co-respondent in the leases case, has agreed to abide by the court ruling, as have the other co-respondents, and it is understood that the matter will be on the agenda for the new board when it meets.
A source close to the process told the M&G that the king would meet the new board in the coming week and that a forensic audit of the trust’s books — and those of Ingonyama Holdings — will be appointed in due course.
It is not clear what the future course of action will be regarding Ingonyama Holdings, which was set up in 2019 as an investment body, with Ngwenya and former ITB chief executive Lucas Mkhwanazi as its two directors.
At a meeting of parliament’s agriculture and land reform portfolio committee earlier this month, Mzimela said a forensic audit would be appointed by the board should this be necessary.