![141012: PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma's home in Nkandla bove: Part of the 20-unit luxury compound built close to P\[fiona.stent\]the president Jacob Zuma’s house as part of the R232-million expansion. Top: The Zuma homestead and surroundings in 2009, left, and the development as it looks now, right. Pictures: DOCTOR NGCOBO and GCINA NDWALANE Picture: DOCTOR NGCOBO](https://image-prod.iol.co.za/16x9/1600/141012-PRESIDENT-Jacob-Zuma-s-home-in-Nkandla-bove-Part-of-the-20-unit-luxury-compound-built-close-to-P-fiona-stent-the-president-Jacob-Zuma-s-house-as-part-of-the-R232-million-expansion-Top-The-Zuma-homestead-and-surroundings-in-2009-left-and-the-development-as-it-looks-now-right-Pictures-DOCTOR-NGCOBO-and-GCINA-NDWALANE-Picture-DOCTOR-NGCOBO?source=https://xlibris.public.prod.oc.inl.infomaker.io:8443/opencontent/objects/87860b5b-5753-56e6-955a-87fe92868726)
Durban - The Ingonyama Trust Board - the entity tasked with the administration of tribal communal land in KwaZulu-Natal says it has not made any “special deal” with President Jacob Zuma.
The board was responding - through its chairman -after City Press on Sunday revealed that Zuma was paying a monthly rental of R800 for the Nkandla land where his multimillion-rand home is being built.
According to documents quoted by the paper, Zuma has entered into a 40-year lease agreement with an option to renew at the end of that term.
Judge Jerome Ngwenya, the chairman of the board, said “the president does not live (on) an island”, and that most of his neighbours and many people whose houses were built on Ingonyama land in KZN did not pay any rent.
In fact, the president had to start paying after converting his indigenous title rights on the property and entering into a lease with Ingonyama.
The trust has – since 2004 – been trying to convince people on Ingonyama land to start converting to leases from the “problematic” permission to occupancy agreements.
Ngwenya said the focus of these conversions was more on land where businesses and government assets were built.
“We have to be consistent with our capacity, because if we were to tell all the 4 million people on Ingonyama land to start converting tomorrow, it might create problems for us.”
He explained that, as an indigenous subject of the area, Zuma was already entitled to indigenous land rights under which he did not have to pay anything.
“So I do not understand how it can be benefiting to him now that he has to pay,” Ngwenya said.
He continued: “We do not have any special deals with anyone. If there are any, those are poor people who come to us saying they want to convert, but they cannot afford to pay rent.”
The trust said it considered many factors when determining the rental amount.
“We also consider where the land is, and what people in that area might afford. For instance, rental might be higher to people in Mgababa, who have access to the sea, than those at uMbumbulu who, while having a view of the sea, might not have access.”
City Press also reported that documents it had obtained showed that Public Works paid a monthly rental of R1 300 for a 6.6 hectare piece of land adjacent to the president’s homestead.
Ngwenya said Ingonyama had an agreement that Public Works would pay a rental of R1 000 a year for land which houses government assets such as schools.
“But because the land at Nkandla is bigger than that of a normal school, it was agreed that Public Works would therefore pay more than the R1 000 annually.”
He said Zuma’s was just one of the many conversions that had been processed. He said the process of converting the land on which Zuma’s house was built had been ongoing for more than two years.
But DA MP Mpowele Swathe was not convinced, saying Ingonyama would have to come to Parliament to explain.
“They need to explain many things, including how they arrived at the R800.”
Daily News