By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@GalloImages.
Minister of Land Reform and Rural Development Mzwanele Nyhontso says Zulu King Misuzulu kaZwelithini acted beyond his powers by suspending members of the Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB), asserting that such authority rests solely with the minister.
Misuzulu last week suspended the board members — including the ITB chief executive officer and chief financial officer — pending an investigation into potential breaches of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
It was revealed that these suspensions followed the appointment of a Witbank-based law firm to conduct a forensic investigation into the Trust’s affairs.
On December 2, King Misuzulu notified the board of the appointment of the law firm to oversee the investigation.On December 20, the firm requested access to the Trust’s data room.
However, the board objected to the investigation on Christmas Eve, stating that they had not been informed about the probe or involved in the firm’s selection.
Shortly after, Ingonyama Trust CEO Vela Mngwengwe, CFO Siyamdumisa Vilakazi, and most of the board members received their suspension letters.
In a statement, Nyhontso said according to the PFMA and the Ingonyama Trust Act, only the 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.
“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.
MisuZulu has preivously 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.