Former Ingonyama Trust Board Chairman, Jerome Ngwenya.
Five staff members at the Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB) who were suspended seven years ago are still waiting for the charges against them to be formally withdrawn, despite being reinstated to their posts at the end of 2021.
Duncan Pakkies, Dockas Zondi, Lungile Sibiya, Nono Msani and Nompumelelo Ndlovu were suspended by former ITB chairperson Jerome Ngwenya in August 2016 over alleged insubordination, negligence and falsification of information relating to a number of commercial leases issued during 2015.
They were suspended on the basis of complaints stemming from disputes between dissatisfied commercial lease holders and the ITB at Mpophomeni at Howick, Ndwedwe, Mnini, Nongoma and Pongola.
The group claimed that the charges against them were spurious and aimed at purging them from the organisation – which administers nearly three million hectares of land in KwaZulu-Natal on behalf of the Zulu monarch – and were reinstated in December 2021.
They have been waiting since then for the ITB to compensate them for their ordeal; to settle their legal bills and to formally withdraw the charges against them. They have now turned to the minister of agriculture, land reform and rural development, Thoko Didiza, for intervention.
Msani has also written to land reform portfolio committee chairperson Mandla Mandela, asking that parliament call the ITB leadership to account and to reform its human resources policies.
In an email to Mandela, Msani said that since their return to work, they had not undergone any induction regarding changes that took place at the ITB in their absence, nor had their situation been addressed.
Msani said the charges had “not yet been withdrawn” despite their reinstatement and that they had still not received a settlement over their legal fees.
Pakkies, who had been their elected representative, had died in June, without his name being formally cleared, Msani said.
“The previous chairperson of ITB who suspended us is no longer in ITB office and now we are totally stressed and depressed as to why these charges against us are not yet being withdrawn because we were not found guilty,” Msani said.
“We need the Ingonyama Trust Board to compensate us because we were paying legal fees to our lawyers to defend us. Our dignity was degraded as the public sees us as thieves and criminals,” he said.
“We want the ITB to [clear] our names. We kindly request your help to fast track the process because it means that this issue will not be withdrawn until all of us die without yet being sorted.”
The group was suspended under the tenure of the ITB chief executive officer FIkisiwe Madlopha, allegedly as part of a plan to replace them with officials closer to Madlopha and Ngwenya.
After Madlopha left the ITB, she was replaced by Lucas Mkhwanazi, who was himself suspended by Ngwenya along with several other executives during the course of 2019.
They went to court and were reinstated, but in 2021 Didiza, under whose ministry the ITB falls, appointed a new chief executive, Vela Mngwengwe, as part of a series of interventions she made.
Mngwenge reinstated the suspended staff members in December 2021.
In a circular to staff at the time, Mngwengwe said that the charges against the staff members had not been withdrawn.
“The board has had to look at whether their continued suspension can still be justified. Following deliberations, the board decided to lift the suspension and recall the affected employees to resume their duties,” Mngwengwe said.
At the time, the five were offered three months salary as compensation, but declined, instead demanding six months salary and the payment of their legal bills by the ITB’s new leadership.
In March, King MIsuZulu ka Zwelithini fired Ngwenya over a dubious R41m investment by Ingonyama Holdings, which he set up along with Mkhwanazi, replacing him with Inkosi Thanduyise Mzimela.
Since then, a new board has been appointed by Didiza and has begun a process of regularising the ITBs administration, but according to the staff members, their situation has still not been addressed.
Last June, Mngwengwe wrote to the staff members saying that they would make a formal proposal to the ITB’s human resources committee when it next met.
Mngwengwe also suggested that the staff meet him for an informal discussion “to get a sense of what [you would] regard as a fair conclusion of the matter”.
However, this has not yet happened, prompting staff members to call on Didiza and Mandela to intervene.
The ITB had not responded by the time of publication. The comments will be added once received.