DURBAN - More than R100 million will be required over the next three years to set in motion the Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Department’s plan to implement the ruling of the Pietermaritzburg High Court regarding lease agreements being enforced by the Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB).
An amount of R39m will be forked out in the 2021/22 financial year, followed by R39.4m in 2022/23 and then R39.5m in 2023/24, bringing the total to R118m for the project.
The money will go towards establishing structures to administer ITB land-related matters and other tribal land matters across KwaZulu-Natal.
The plan, which is contained in a 29-page report, was recently presented to the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
In June, the court found that the Ingonyama Trust’s residential lease programme was unlawful and called on the trust to repay the money it had charged tenants on trust-owned land from 2012.
The lease programme had been developed to replace the Permission To Occupy (PTO) rights which had previously been applied on the land that falls under the custodianship of the late Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini.
The high court ruling instructed the minister Thoko Didiza to ensure that the administrative capacity necessary to implement the KwaZulu Land Affairs Act and the PTO Regulations was reinstated. She was further ordered to report on the progress made to implement and comply with the order.
Didiza must provide updates until the parties agree that the order has been implemented and that the reporting may be concluded, or if the court orders it.
“The implementation of the order will affect approximately 3 million hectares under Ingonyama Trust and other tribal land outside Ingonyama trust land, for example, Umzimkhulu Municipality,” read the report.
Part of the administrative undertaking by the department will include:
◆ Amending the PTO regulations document.
◆ Developing an application system (online and manual) for the applicant and the traditional authority.
◆ Developing guidelines for allocation of allotments or stands for residential purposes to ensure that the land rights of women, youth and people living with disabilities are not disregarded.
◆ Developing a process to obtain certificates of registered title in respect of such allotments in trust-held land.
◆ Developing a training and capacity building programme for officials, local government, traditional leadership and communities on the PTO regulations and their implementation in order to strengthen certain provisions in both the two legislations and ensure long-term security of tenure for farm dwellers/occupiers and labour tenants.
The report also said the department was currently in the process of developing legislation to deal with Communal Tenure and Land Administration in Communal Areas, the Communal Land Tenure Policy (CLTP) and the Bill.
Department spokesperson Reggie Ngcobo said that the plan had been developed and presented to the high court as a sign of compliance with court’s order in June.
Approached for comment, the Ingonyama Trust said it had referred The Mercury’s enquiry to the chairperson of the board, Jerome Ngwenya for a response.
Ngwenya could not be reached by time of publication yesterday.
THE MERCURY