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- Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi says the concentration of land ownership by traditional leaders contradicts custom and gives them more power than what a conventional system gives them.
- He says the traditional trusteeship system disempowers the majority.
- When you look at the trustees' powers under the Ingonyama Act, it's remarkable," he said.
Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi says he doesn't believe the trusteeship system of land ownership benefits the landless majority.
While delivering a lecture at the University of KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday evening, Ngcukaitobi said the concentration of land ownership by the elite minority, including traditional leaders, contradicts custom and gives them more power than a conventional system gives them.
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The traditional trusteeship system under which the Ingonyama Trust and the Royal Bafokeng trusteeships function, among others, disempowers the majority, he said.
He asked:
"We have internalised this as custom, which is why I am reluctant that the Ingonyama Trust system is customary because it is a trusteeship system based on a colonial concept. It's the same even in the Eastern Cape and everywhere where you find trust land."
Ngcukaitobi, who has represented communities under the Royal Bafokeng trusteeship on land reform-related matters, said they did not benefit from "their ownership of the land."
"I am looking for the system that seeks to benefit people from the bottom up - not the elites. The system does not seem to be people centered. It benefits the miners, the chiefs, and politicians. Unless you destroy that network of the state, we can't have a system that benefits the people," said Ngcukaitobi.
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He added that the concentration of land ownership was not only limited to traditional leaders and trusteeships but extended to the few who own the majority of commercial land.
"What black people need is more land. They cannot sustain themselves with the land that is being made available. This country has enough land to accommodate all of us. The only reason it's not doing so is that it accommodates the 60 000 families that control 72% of all commercial land. That is unsustainable anywhere in the world," he said.
