Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Mzwanele Nyhontso accused King MisuZulu kaZwelithini of acting beyond his powers by suspending members of the Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB), saying that authority in fact rested with himself.
The Zulu monarch last week suspended the board members — including the ITB chief executive officer and chief financial officer — pending an investigation into alleged potential breaches of the Public Finance Management Act.
But in a statement on Friday, the board members said the king did not have authority to suspend anyone in the Ingonyama Trust, adding that his move followed a “surprising” letter in early December in which MisuZulu notified them about the appointment of one Stephen Jabulani Rakwena of Van Rensburg Kruger Rakwena Attorneys to undertake specific trustee functions. The ITB said last week’s letters suspending most of the board were distributed by Rakwena.
On Monday, Nyhontso said according to the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and the Ingonyama Trust Act, only the lands minister appoints the Ingonyama Trust Board.
“The PFMA further empowers the minister to appoint or remove and by extension suspend the members of the board as the entity’s executive authority. It therefore follows that the king acted ultra vires by suspending the members of the board, this power is solely placed on the minister,” he said in a statement.
“The decision to suspend the board members and action of the king to choose to run the board on his own, with the ‘sole unaffected board member’, not only flies in the face of good corporate governance but will also not stand legal scrutiny if challenged.”
“The consequence of these actions that are ultra vires is that the board remains in office until the minister decides otherwise, even then only after following proper processes,” Nyhontso added.
King MisuZulu has previously asked Nyhontso to dissolve the ITB, accusing its members of “hostility” and of refusing to cooperate with his vision for the entity. The monarch is the ITB’s sole trustee and is also its chairperson, a role he took on after firing Thanduyise Mzimela, who he had installed last year after removing long-serving chair Jerome Ngwenya.
The ITB runs the affairs of the Ingonyama Trust, which controls nearly three million hectares of land in KwaZulu-Natal on behalf of the monarch, and falls under the land reform ministry. The minister appoints the board in consultation with the king, the premier of KwaZulu-Natal and the House of Traditional Leaders.
