The Ingonyama Trust is a corporate entity established to administer the land traditionally owned by the

Zulu people Zulu people (; zu, amaZulu) are a Nguni ethnic group native to Southern Africa. The Zulu people are the largest ethnic group and nation in South Africa, with an estimated 10–12 million people, living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal ...

, represented by their

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

, for the benefit, material welfare and social well-being of the Zulu nation, who continue to occupy the land as they historically have done.About the Ingonyama Trust
/ref> The Trust owns 29.67% of the land in

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

, which is equivalent to 28,000 square kilometres, or 10,811 square miles. The Board of the Trust consists of the Zulu King, MisuZulu Zulu kaZwelithini, who chairs the Board, and eight members appointed by the

Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform The Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform is a Minister in the Cabinet of South Africa The Cabinet of South Africa is the most senior level of the executive branch of the Government of South Africa. It is made up of the President, t ...

in the national government, after consultation with the King, the

Premier of KwaZulu-Natal The Premier of KwaZulu-Natal is the head of government of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The current Premier of KwaZulu-Natal i''s'' Nomusa Dube-Ncube, a member of the African National Congress. She is the first elected woman to assu ...

and the chairperson of the KwaZulu-Natal House of Traditional Leaders. The Trust was formed by an Act of the legislature of the then self-governing territory (Bantustan) of

KwaZulu KwaZulu was a semi-independent bantustan in South Africa, intended by the apartheid government as a homeland for the Zulu people. The capital was moved from Nongoma to Ulundi in 1980. It was led until its abolition in 1994 by Chief Mangosuth ...

, as a last attempt at controlling previously black-owned land at a convenient arms-length, in the dying days of the era of segregation. Ingonyama means

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, a ...

in Zulu. Controversially, the Trust, as a former state institution, was exempt from paying tax from April 1994 to July 2005, until this position was challenged in a case considered by the Supreme Court of Appeal. Since this time, the Trust, and the occupants of the formal townships under its control, pay taxes and rates as per the wider national laws. The Trust, and the greater question of land ownership and occupancy, remains a contested topic in South African discourse and law. On 9 and 10 December 2020, a case against the Trust brought by the Council for Advancement of the South African Constitution, the Rural Women’s Movement and several communities started in Pietermaritzburg High Court in front of three judges.

External links

* http://www.ingonyamatrust.org.za website of the Ingonyama Trust Board

References

{{reflist Real estate investment trusts Politics of South Africa Zulu topics Zulu monarchy