On the 25th of November, the Nelson Mandela Foundation, in collaboration with the Land and Accountability Research Centre (LARC) based at the University of Cape Town, the Public Affairs Research Institute with the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, will host a virtual panel discussion to discuss the ‘Future of the Ingonyama Trust’ with speakers Reverend Mavuso Mbhekiseni, Zenande Booi, Janet Bellamy and facilitated by Dr Mbongiseni Buthelezi.
The discussion takes place as COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown ravages the social, political and economic landscape in rural South Africa. The discussion will seek to answer whether the Trust has been able to support member communities and their beneficiaries during this time. It will also focus on the Trust, through the Ingonyama Trust Board which has been concluding residential leases with people that hold customary and other informal land rights, and permission to occupy certificates (the constitutionality of this policy is currently going through the court system) and has also been concluding commercial leases with 3rd parties – mining and other types of companies – over land that is vested in it. The questions raised in this regard are – what is the impact of these leases on the land rights held by members of communities that are beneficiaries of the Trust, and what happens to the money made through these leases?
The discussion will draw on research undertaken by the LARC which has examined the Ingonyama Trust’s expenditure and the legal framework governing it.
About the speakers:
Reverend Mavuso Mbhekiseni is a veteran community activist from Makhasaneni, in Northern KwaZulu-Natal who has campaigned against mining deals in the area. His activism has led to a number of death threats against his life. His activism was chronicled in the 2017 documentary “This Land”.
Zenande Booi heads activities within LARC’s Land stream. Prior to joining LARC, she was the Crowley Fellow in International Human Rights at the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at the Fordham School of Law in New York City. Zenande graduated with an LLB from the University of Cape Town and completed her Masters in International Legal Studies and International Human Rights Law at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC.
Janet Bellamy holds a BA LL.B from the University of the Witwatersrand and is an Attorney, Notary and Conveyancer of the High Court of South Africa. She is an experienced property lawyer and as a director of a Cape Town law firm, combined a diverse commercial and property law practice with an interest in water law and restitution of land rights. She is currently involved in research in this field and in the interpretation of fiduciary duties of state land trusts in post colonial jurisdictions. She is a senior research associate at LARC.
Mbongiseni Buthelezi holds a PhD in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, New York, where he also obtained a Master of Philosophy in English and Comparative Literature. Working in various academic and activist capacities, he has been interested in how the state interfaces with citizens in areas that include land restitution, the role of traditional leaders in governance, heritage and public archives.
Venue: Zoom
Date: Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Times: 15h30 - 17h00
Please register your attendance at: www.tinyurl.com/landbenefits
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Kneo Mokgopa
Nelson Mandela Foundation
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