Durban - The National Freedom Party (NFP) has asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to use the upcoming coronation of Zulu King, Misuzulu Sinqobole KaZwelithini, to make a public undertaking that his government will never touch the land under the care of Ingonyama Trust.
The NFP’s secretary-general, Canaan Mdletshe, said they are against the government executing a blanket approach on the issue of expropriating land without compensation.
The issue of the Ingonyama Trust and the 2.8 million hectares of land under its care in KwaZulu-Natal has always been a thorny one.
In 2017, a high-level panel headed by former president, Kgalema Motlanthe, recommended that the land should be taken over by the state on behalf of the people.
That sparked a huge debate, and the late King Goodwill Zwelithini called an impromptu imbizo where he urged Zulu people to stand up against the government if they go ahead with the matter.
Ramaphosa had to fly down to Nongoma to meet with the late King and assure him that the land was safe.
However, the matter came to the fore once again when in June last year, the Pietermaritzburg High Court ruled that the leases and rentals the trust collects from people living on its land were illegal.
The court ruled that the trust should refund all the people it had collected money from. The trust is appealing the ruling at the Supreme Court of Appeal.
In spite of all this, Mdletshe said Ramaphosa needed to assure the Zulu nation and its king that the land was safe.
"The inauguration provides the President with a golden opportunity to put the issue of land under the Ingonyama Trust to bed, for once and for all.
"We implore President Ramaphosa to come clean on the matter. He has to pronounce publicly where his government and administration stands on the matter.
"The ANC, as the governing party, has been speaking in tongues when it comes to this issue, and President Ramaphosa has the opportunity to put all the speculations and perceptions at rest.
"As the nation, we want to know. The King certainly wants an assurance from the Head of State of the final decision on the land under his control.
"In actual fact, we expect the President to address the nation on that day on the expropriation of land without compensation. We need clarity on how far is the progress and what could be the issues preventing government from exercising a blanket approach on the matter.
"Government's slow pace on redistribution of land has been very suspicious, and we want answers.“
King Misuzulu’s coronation will take palace at Durban’s Moses Mabhida stadium on October 29.
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