Land held under traditional leaders is safe from being expropriated for purposes of restitution, as it would be "meaningless", Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Zweli Mkhize says.
Mkhize on Wednesday attended the lekgotla of the house of traditional leaders which took place in Durban, where the issue of land was central to the discussions, including the proposal to dissolve the Ingonyama Trust.
The Ingonyama Trust was established in 1994 to be the custodian of the land that was previously administered by the then KwaZulu-Natal government. It comprises 29.67% of the land in the province.
A call for a review of the Ingonyama Trust first came from a high-level panel led by former president Kgalema Motlanthe, which recommended that Parliament scrap the law which allowed the trust to control land in KwaZulu-Natal.
King Goodwill Zwelithini has previously said anyone who touched the Ingonyama Trust was declaring war against the Zulu nation. He called on every Zulu to donate money towards a fund to take on the government on this issue.
In an interview with Business Day on Thursday Mkhize said there was a "misrepresentation" in the debate surrounding land expropriation without compensation as it pertains to land held by traditional leaders.
"There is no focus on expropriating land which is under traditional leaders for purposes of restitution, because it is actually meaningless," Mkhize said.
He said the land was already in the hands of the "majority of the people" which was left to them after the 1913 land act.
"You need to increase the area which people are able to use on the basis of correcting the past dispossession. That is what needs to be done. You can’t go to those thornvelds and start again because you want to expropriate that," Mkhize said.
He made it clear that communal land could not be expropriated, and if anything were to be expropriated it could be for development or infrastructure.
He said that if development was to be done, the local leaders would "obviously" have to be involved.
On the Ingonyama Trust, Mkhize said it was important to note that the structure of the trust was accountable to both the provincial legislature and the national legislature, and therefore should not be dealt with as an outside operation.
He said when looking at reviewing how the Ingonyama Trust functions, it should be done in the context of finalising the discussion on the issue of security of tenure in communal land.
Mkhize said it was the same everywhere and how it should be approached should be determine at which point title deeds are used, as well at which point lease holding is used.
"I think what we need to do is to calm everyone down and to say there is no need for this matter to be handled as emotively as it has happened," Mkhize said.
Mothlanthe told the ANC’s land summit in May that people living on land owned by the Ingonyama Trust had to pay the board a R1,000 rent to stay on the land. An argument was made that the land should be given to the people and not to traditional leaders.
Mkhize said the evolution in terms of the representation of security of tenure was a problem that would affect a lot of legislation or could lead to the need for new legislation.
"I don’t think we must jump the gun," Mkhize said, adding that government must first say what policy approach is taken.
© BDlive 2018
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.