Your land will remain yours, Ramaphosa tells S/Africa’s Zulu king

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Your land will remain yours, Ramaphosa tells S/Africa’s Zulu king

2:14 CAT | 08 Jul 2018

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South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa said that he had assured King Goodwill Zwelithini of the Zulu ethnic group that his government would not expropriate custom or traditional land under the king’s through controversial Ingonyama Trust.Ramaphosa‚ who was in KwaZulu-Natal for the launch of the ruling African National Congress’s ‘Thuma Mina’ (Send Me) campaign‚ said this when he met with the powerful and influential Zulu king and Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi in Richards Bay, APA learnt on Saturday.

The meeting followed an “imbizo” (gathering) of traditional leaders the Zulu monarch summoned to his palace to forewarn them of a pending clash of nations should the state make good on moves to dissolve the Ingonyama Trust Board and cede thousands of hectares of traditional land to the state.

King Zwelithini is the sole trustee of the Ingonyama Trust which administers 2.8-million hectares of land on his behalf in KwaZulu-Natal Province.

The king’s warning comes after a government body, the High-Level Panel on the Assessment of Key Legislation and Fundamental Change, recommended that the Ingonyama Trust Act should be repealed or amended‚ and the Ingonyama Trust abolished.

The recommendation to scrap the trust has put the ANC government on a collision course with Zwelithini and Buthelezi, who spearheaded the establishment of the trust, as well as other traditional leaders who have warned of a full-scale war should land under tribal authorities be expropriated by government.

Zwelithini has the support of KwaZulu-Natal Premier Willies Mchunu who has vowed that his provincial government would not support any government attempts to scrap the Ingonyama Trust.

The regional government is holding a land summit this week to discuss‚ among other things‚ the Ingonyama Trust‚ land management and use in KwaZulu-Natal.

But Ramaphosa, speaking during the launch of the Thuma Mina campaign‚ told thousands of ANC supporters that after this week’s imbizo he had decided to meet with the king.

“I told the king that we, as the ANC government, we have no intention whatsoever to even try to take the land under the Ingonyama Trust.

“We, as government‚ have no intention to take away land under Ingonyama Trust and we don’t even want the Ingonyama Trust to be cancelled‚” he said, adding that the Ingonyama Trust will keep its status quo under the king’s jurisdiction.

Ramaphosa said the expropriation of land without compensation was not targeted at the 13% of black-owned land that was under traditional leaders.

Source: APA