Ingonyama Trust Board seeks to refund illegal rent payments to residents
The Ingonyama Trust Board is currently attempting to trace nearly 1,620 individuals who were unlawfully charged “rent” for residing on land owned by the trust after being asked to sign lease agreements.
This issue stems from a court case initiated by the Legal Resources Centre on behalf of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC), the Rural Women’s Movement (RWM), and seven individual holders of informal land rights against the Ingonyama Trust, the Ingonyama Trust Board, and the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform.
The case challenged the leases imposed on residents by the trust.
The plaintiffs sought a court declaration that all such lease agreements are invalid and unlawful, requesting that the Trust and the Board refund all money paid under these unlawful leases to those affected.
Media reports indicate that in November 2017, the Ingonyama Trust published advertisements in various KwaZulu-Natal newspapers inviting holders of Permission to Occupy (PTOs) to approach the Ingonyama Trust Board with the aim of upgrading these PTOs into long-term leases, in line with the Ingonyama Trust tenure policy.
It was reported that residents received no information about the consequences of signing these leases; they were not informed that they were, in effect, diminishing their existing land rights. Furthermore, the Ingonyama Trust’s rollout of these leases deprived many women of their land ownership.
On June 11 2021, the Pietermaritzburg High Court declared the actions of the Ingonyama Trust unlawful and in violation of the Constitution for initiating leases with individuals already residing on Zulu customary land. The court further ordered that those who had signed leases should be refunded. The Trust sought leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal but this was refused in 2022.
On Wednesday, the Trust briefed the media on the process underway to comply with the court ruling and refund those who had been made to pay. It said efforts were being made to trace people who payments.
“We are currently contact-tracing approximately 1,620 people who made payments under these leases from around 2008 until the date of the court order. So far, approximately 208 individuals have been traced and refunded, and we have given ourselves a period of 18 months to finalise contact tracing, payment, and lease cancellation,” the Trust stated in a press release.