King Misuzulu KaZwelithini. (Photo by Gallo) Images/Darren Stewart)
Land Reform Minister Mzwanele Nyhontso has requested a meeting with King MisuZulu ka Zwelithini over the standoff sparked by the monarch’s ongoing attempts to suspend members of the Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB).
Nyhontso will meet the king after his return from eSwatini on 15 January in an attempt to resolve his tensions with the board, of which he is the current chairperson.
This after the king’s lawyer, Stephen Rakwena, defied Nyhontso’s countermanding of the suspensions and attempted this week to have the ITB’s security staff prevent board members and executives from entering its Pietermaritzburg offices.
The board administers nearly three million hectares of land in KwaZulu-Natal that falls under traditional leadership on behalf of the Ingonyama Trust, of which the king is the sole trustee. It collects revenue from commercial farms, businesses and the mining sector operating on trust land, part of which is meant to benefit people living under the province’s traditional leaders.
The king became te chair of the ITB, having fired Thanduyise Mzimela, who he appointed in 2023.
He had earlier dismissed its longstanding chairperson, Jerome Ngwenya, after a Mail & Guardian investigation revealed the loss of R40 million in a dodgy investment.
The monarch has been at loggerheads with the current board for some time over a number of issues, including his attempt to have the legal firm that represents him in his battle for the throne appointed to conduct a land audit for the ITB.
It also stopped paying the king’s legal bills and covering other expenses that had been paid for, irregularly, during Ngwenya’s tenure. This was made public during a failed high court battle by the king’s estranged uncle, Mbonisi, to have him removed as ITB chair until the court challenge to his appointment in 2021.
The king has since repeatedly asked Nyhontso to dissolve the board, appointed by his predecessor, Thoko Didiza, citing irreconcilable differences with its members.
Nyhontso undertook to address the tension between the king and the board, but made it clear that there would be no summary removal of its members — or its executives — who have been part of the process of attempting to regularise the ITB’s operations and finances.
Over the festive season, a bizarre series of events unfolded when Rakwena issued a statement saying he had been appointed by the king to conduct a forensic investigation into the board.
Rakwena said the king had suspended all but one member of the board, and that they were expected to stay away from the office until the investigation was concluded.
He said he had been appointed by the monarch to conduct a forensic audit into the affairs of the trust, claiming malfeasance on the part of the board and its executive.
Nyhontso then intervened last week, saying that he had learned about the suspension in a letter from the king, who had acted beyond his powers as chairperson of the board in both suspending its members and appointing Rakwena to act on his behalf.
Nyhontso said the Ingonyama Trust Act, as amended, allowed the minister to appoint eight of the board’s members, to designate its deputy chairperson and to make regulations, after consultations.
The trust was also a national public entity in terms of the Public Finance Management Act, (PFMA) which imposed further accountability on the minister and gave him powers to “appoint or remove all, or the majority of, the members of that entity’s board of directors or equivalent governing body”.
“Only the minister appoints the board in terms of the Act and the PFMA further empowers the minister to appoint or remove and by extension suspend the members of the board as the entity’s executive authority,” Nyhontso said.
“It therefore follows that the king acted ultra vires by suspending the members of the board, this power is solely placed on the minister.”
He said that by commissioning and appointing Rakwena, the king had acted in violation of the law, while his decision to run the board on his own “not only flies in the face of good corporate governance but will also not stand legal scrutiny if challenged”.
The board remained in place ”until the minister decides otherwise, even then only after following proper processes”.
Nyhontso said he would continue discussions with both the king and the board members to address whatever concerns they had raised about governance or any other related matter.
“I will execute my duty of appointment and removal of Board members accordingly,” he said.
Despite this, Rakwena wrote to staff members at the ITB on 3 January, insisting that he had a mandate to conduct a forensic investigation and informing them that board members Linda Zama, Mabhudu Tembe, Phallang Molefe, Sibonelo Mkhize, Dandy Matamela and Nomusa Zulu had been suspended.
Rakwena said in the letter that chief financial officer Siyamdumisa Vilakazi and chief executive officer Vela Mngwengwe had also been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation he was conducting.
Rakwena also instructed security staff to physically prevent the board and executives from entering, saying in the letter that “you are indemnified and held blameless for executing this instruction”.
But security staff were instructed by Mngwengwe in writing on Monday not to abide by any instruction from Rakwena and to continue with their duties.
Mngwengwe said he and Vilakazi returned to work on Monday along with the rest of the ITB’s staff complement and that a board meeting would take place “soon”.
“It is indeed true that his majesty’s attorneys have defied the minister. We have nonetheless clarified to our security personnel that they cannot take instructions from anyone except our contact personnel,” Mngwengwe told the M&G on Tuesday.
“Both the CFO and I are consequently at the office right now,” Mngwengwe said.
Rakwena said the king had not dissolved the board, but had merely “suspended certain members” and Nyhontso’s assertion that it had been wrongly dissolved was incorrect.
He said he believed the minister had been “wrongly briefed” and that the actions of the king, who had the right to suspend board members, were being misunderstood.
“Certain members have been suspended, along with the CEO and CFO, but the board still continues to exist. His majesty is still the chairperson of the board and one member of the board remains,” Rakwena said.
Rakwena said the minister could second staff from the department to assist in board functions — as had been the case with the deployment of both Vilakazi and Mngwengwe, who were both deployed by Didiza to stabilise the board.
“That can be done. The suspensions are temporary and are aimed at allowing investigations to go ahead. It is clear that the suspended officials intend to impede the investigation,” Rakwena said.
He said his attempt to secure access to the premises and ITB documentation in a letter on 20 December had been “practically ignored” by its leadership, who had “challenged my authority”.
“They challenged me over things that are not relevant and asked who is paying me. The CEO made comments to the effect that I am representing his majesty in his personal capacity and not in relation to the Ingonyama Trust.”
Rakwena said there were “steps” the king’s legal team were contemplating and that they would comment further in the coming days.
Nyhontso’s spokesperson, Linda Page, said on Tuesday that the board was performing its duties.
She said the minister was requesting a meeting with the king after his return to South Africa next week.
The king also removed his traditional prime minister, Thiulasizwe Buthelezi, from office over the festive season, following weeks of speculation that the relationship between the two had soured.
Buthelezi, a member of the Inkatha Freedom Party national council and KwaZulu-Natal MEC for cooperative governance and traditional affairs, was appointed to the traditional role by the king last January.
He did not respond to calls from the M&G regarding his removal from office.