Ingonyama Trust faces challenge in refunding over 1,600 residents
Ingonyama Trust Board acting CEO Siyamdumisa Vilakazi says spending over R4 million to reimburse homeowners who paid rental fees to occupy traditional land in KwaZulu-Natal will not financially harm the board.
Image: Ingonyama Trust Board website
THE Ingonyama Trust is facing significant hurdles in its mission to refund more than 1,600 residents from whom it illegally collected funds between 2007 and 2021.
More than R4 million is awaiting restitution, but the trust has only successfully contacted just over 200 individuals so far, leaving a vast majority untraceable.
The interim chief executive of the board, Siyamdumisa Vilakazi, said they are continuing with their efforts to trace people.
"Tracing all of them is difficult, as some have died; others in the deep rural areas have network problems where they stay. There are 1602 people who need to be refunded. We've only managed to trace 208," said Vilakazi.
Vilakazi said there could be more people who show up who say they were also paying the trust.
"However, so far only 1620 people are in our records," said Vilakazi.
The trust is paying back people who were paying for residential leases.
He said the residential lease was different from the money paid by subjects who are under traditional authorities, as those funds are kept by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
The residential leases were paid between 2007 and 2021 until it was discovered that the trust has no authority to collect such funds.
"It was different amounts. In some areas, people were paying R1200 per year," said Vilakazi.
While hoping to have all refunds processed within the next 18 months, Vilakazi mentioned the possibility of additional individuals coming forward claiming they were also subjected to the trust's leases.
In June 2021, Judge Isaac Madondo in the Pietermaritzburg High Court ruled that the Ingonyama Trust's residential lease programme was unlawful and unconstitutional.
The court declared the leases invalid and ordered the trust to refund all money collected from residents under the programme. This ruling stemmed from a challenge arguing that the Trust's actions violated residents' constitutional and customary law property rights, specifically by converting permission to occupy (PTO) rights into lease agreements.
The matter was brought to court by the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) and the Rural Women's Movement.
The previous board tried to appeal the decision unsuccessfully.
The deputy chairperson of the ITB, Advocate Linda Zama, said they decided to abide by the court's ruling and directive.
She said she's unaware why the previous board decided to charge residents.
She said she knows that there are people who are opposed to their decision to refund residents.