Ingonyama Trust Unlawful Leases: Extracting R90M+/Year from 5 Million Rural Residents

The Ingonyama Trust controls approximately 2.8 million hectares — roughly one-third of all inhabitable land in KwaZulu-Natal. Over 5 million people live on Trust land. What the Trust did to those people between 2007 and 2021 was declared unlawful by the courts.

**The PTO-to-Lease Conversion**

Around 2007, the Ingonyama Trust Board stopped issuing Permission to Occupy (PTO) certificates — the traditional instrument granting rural residents the right to occupy communal land under customary law. Instead, the Board began converting existing PTOs into formal lease agreements.

This seemingly technical change had a devastating practical effect: rural residents who had lived on the land for generations under customary law were now required to pay rent. The Trust collected approximately R90 million in lease fees in the 2018-19 financial year alone, with total annual rental income reportedly reaching R118.4 million.

**The Court Challenge**

The Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC) and the Rural Women's Movement brought a legal challenge. In June 2021, Judge Isaac Madondo of the Pietermaritzburg High Court delivered a landmark ruling: the PTO-to-lease conversion programme was unlawful and unconstitutional.

The court ordered the Trust to: - Cancel all leases entered into through the conversion programme - Refund all payments collected from residents under the unlawful leases

The Ingonyama Trust Board appealed. In August 2022, the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. In November 2023, the Trust Board withdrew its Constitutional Court appeal, confirming the refund obligation.

**The Glacial Refund Process**

Four years after the High Court ruling, the Trust announced a mere R4 million in refunds earmarked for over 1,600 residents. As of July 2025, only about 200 individuals had been successfully contacted. This against the R90M+ collected annually — representing hundreds of millions extracted over 14 years.

**The Current Power Struggle**

King Misuzulu kaZwelithini is now attempting to take total control of the Trust Board, seeking to strip the government of appointment powers. Parliament declared the King's self-appointment as chairperson unlawful. The Trust Board consistently received audit findings with material findings on SCM compliance, with action plans that were "not effectively implemented or monitored."