DA supports individual ownership of Ingonyama Trust Land

5 July 2018

The Democratic Alliance (DA) agrees with King Goodwill Zwelithini on the principle that ownership of land under the Ingonyama Trust be given over to the people, through individual title deeds.

Infact, we have submitted a motion to the Speaker of the KwaZulu Natal legislature, Lydia Johnson, requesting an urgent debate on the recommendations made by the Kgalema Motlanthe panel on Ingonyama Trust land.

As a regular participant in meetings convened by Isilo and chiefs, there is a general view that the Ingonyama Trust land act must not be abolished entirely but must be amended to ensure that individual land ownership becomes a reality in KZN.

We do not share the ANC and EFF’s view that the state should be the sole owner of land and everyone else tenants on state land. This approach to land reform by the ANC continues to alienate traditional leaders who are critical stakeholders in ensuring that a process to transform communal land to individual ownership is successful.

The ANC’s insistence that the state should be the sole custodian of land ownership is nothing more than an attempt to perpetuate a culture of rent-seeking behavior that has so far worked to serve its corrupt network.

Successful land reform does not require a Constitutional amendment, what is needed is strong leadership and proper funding. As things stand, the ANC spends more money on VIP protection than it spends on land reform.

Individual land ownership, gives residents security of tenure and ability to create economic value through agricultural or commercial enterprise underwritten by enterprise finance from banks and micro lending institutions.

If the DA’s policy of individual land ownership and freehold was to be implemented, it will enable black South Africans to own the majority of land owned by private individuals in South Africa.

A wholesale expropriation of the Ingonyama Trust land by the state will do nothing to improve the material and economic conditions of residents living in the area. If anything, it will perpetuate the cycle of poverty among the people as they won’t be able to realise any economic value as ‘tenants of the state’.

True economic empowerment for residents on Ingonyama Trust land will only become a reality once they are given the opportunity to own the land from which their families have lived on for many generations.

Issued by Zwakele Mncwango, DA KZN Provincial Leader, 5 July 2018