Zulu King MisuZulu ka Zwelithini Photo: Darren Stewart/Getty Images
King MisuZulu kaZwelithini has asked Land Reform Minister Mzwanele Nyhontso to dissolve the current Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB), accusing its members of “hostility” and of refusing to cooperate with his vision for the entity.
The monarch, who is the ITB’s sole trustee, made the request on Monday at a meeting with Nyhontso in Nongoma in a memorandum submitted to the minister by his traditional prime minister, Thulasizwe Buthelezi.
The ITB runs the affairs of the Ingonyama Trust, which controls nearly three million hectares of land in KwaZulu-Natal on behalf of the monarch, and falls under the land reform ministry. The minister appoints the board in consultation with the king, the premier of KwaZulu-Natal and the House of Traditional Leaders.
The king, who fired the previous board chairperson and has taken on the role himself, is at loggerheads with the board over a number of his decisions it has refused to endorse. The monarch also wants the tenure of its current chief executive officer, Vela Mngwengwe, to end this week, despite a plan by the board to extend it.
In the memorandum, Buthelezi said there was “great concern” on the part of amakhosi and members of the Zulu royal family over the composition of the current board, which was appointed by the previous minister Thoko Didiza.
Buthelezi said that although they understood it was the minister’s right to make the appointment, and there was no requirement for consultation with amakhosi, they were “the stakeholders of the Ingonyama Trust”.
“It is amakhosi who administer the land of the Ingonyama Trust and represent the beneficiaries of the trust. Thus when amakhosi have no confidence in the Ingonyama Trust Board, a very serious situation is created,” he said.
This “crisis” was compounded by the fact that the king, who is the board chairperson and trustee, “has no confidence in his own board due to the board’s hostility, non-co-operation and refusal to recognise the indispensable role of amakhosi in exercising oversight over the affairs of the trust.”
Buthelezi said the request to dissolve the board was based on resolutions taken by a meeting of amakhosi and the royal house in Ulundi on 23 May.
“Based on these resolutions and the intractable concerns we have over the composition of the board, we seek to petition the minister for the Ingonyama Trust Board to be dissolved,” Buthelezi said.
Although there was no legal requirement that Nyontso heed the concerns of the king and amakhosi, it would be a “mistake” if he did not do so.
“It is self-evident that the trust cannot function when there is such a disconnect between
the Board and the stakeholders of the land. The Ingonyama Trust cannot function when there is a deficit of trust between the board and the sole trustee, who is the custodian of the land on behalf of his people,” Buthelezi said in the memorandum.
“While the law would suggest that amakhosi can simply be dragooned into accepting this board, the reality is that amakhosi will act in the best interests of our people and our kingdom, regardless of whether we are respected, heeded or even given space to have a say.”
Buthelezi challenged the rationale behind the appointment of board member Lisa del Grande, a former director of the Association for Rural Advancement, who he claimed was a critic of the creation of the trust.
Other board members — three of whom are traditional leaders — also came under fire for failing to consult amakhosi during their 12 months in office.
“Whose interests do they represent — the people’s or their own?” Buthelezi said.
He accused the board of siding with the king’s estranged uncle, Prince Mbonisi Zulu, in the failed court application in which he had attempted to stop the monarch from exercising his powers over the ITB.
Buthelezi said “the very same board sided with Prince Mbonisi who sought to diminish His Majesty’s authority and benefits as chairperson of the Ingonyama Trust”, an apparent reference to the board’s refusal to sign off on a number of decisions by the king.
The board has also stopped funding the king’s legal battles, arguing that it cannot legally do so.
Mbonisi and the king’s half brother, Prince Simakade Zulu, were successful in challenging MisuZulu’s recognition by President Cyril Ramaphosa, but the matter has been taken on appeal.
Mbonisi was last week fired by the KwaZulu-Natal cooperative governance and traditional affairs ministry, which Buthelezi heads. He was an anthropology researcher at the traditional leadership dispute and claims commission that falls under the ministry.
Buthelezi said the board’s actions were a “warning” that “the land of the Ingonyama Trust is in jeopardy from the very board appointed to oversee its administration. There is something very questionable in the way this board was constituted,” he said.
Buthelezi said amakhosi had “no information” as to how the current board was appointed by Didiza.
“There was an utter absence of transparency. No public process was followed in the exercise of public powers. None of the individuals involved in the consultation process ever engaged with or consulted amakhosi regarding the appointments,” Buthelezi said.
The king believed he had not been consulted but was “simply informed of the fact” and as a result “considers this process by which this current board was appointed as fundamentally flawed”.
“Amakhosi are the stakeholders of the Ingonyama Trust. When the stakeholders reject the board, the entire system is unworkable,” Buthelezi said.
He said it was incumbent on Nyhontso to dissolve the board and appoint one which will “support the vision of our king and not undermine, sideline or sabotage our king as the present board is doing”.
Nyhontso’s spokesperson, Linda Page, said the minister would consider the king’s request.
“The minister undertook to consider the information presented to him during the meeting as well as the documents submitted to him. He will revert to the king in due course,” she said.