
Durban - The Premier of KZN, Sihle Zikalala, says contrary to popular belief, the main issue about the Ingonyama trust which owns vast land in KZN, is not only about ownership, but it goes beyond to include using the land for economic purposes by those inhabiting it.
As a result, he said they are working with the trust whose sole trustee is Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, to ensure that indeed people living on the land, are able to use the land to conduct businesses with tenure certainty and be able to use it as a collateral to access business funding from financial institutions.
Zikalala was responding to media questions during a post-state of the province address interaction with political editors and senior political journalists which was held in Durban on Wednesday.
"I don't believe that with regards to Ingonyama trust the question is about ownership, while it is about ownership I think it as about ensuring that people who are under land that is controlled by Ingonyama trust have the right to use that land for economic reasons and for economic benefit which I believe both the trust and government must resolve and have a plan to ensure that those people are able to use land effectively and to get those who want to use land for getting loans or business operation, they should have that access. We should be working on that," Zikalala responded when asked about the contentious issue of the trust.
The Trust owns 29.67% of the land in KwaZulu-Natal, which is equivalent to 28 000 square kilometres, or 10 811 square miles.