King Misuzulu KaZwelithini has rejected Rural Development and Land Affairs Minister Mzwanele Nyhontsho’s assertion that he cannot suspend the Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB).

In a letter dated 7 January 2025, the Zulu monarch said he does have those powers and that Nyhontso is mistaken for claiming anything to the contrary. 

The ITB is a South African public entity that oversees land owned by the Ingonyama Trust, established in 1994 to administer land traditionally owned by the Zulu monarchy. 

The Ingonyama Trust was created under the KwaZulu-Natal Ingonyama Trust Act, in 1994, just before South Africa’s first democratic elections.

The Trust owns nearly 3 million hectares of land in KwaZulu-Natal, about 30% of the province’s land area. This land is held in trust to benefit the communities that live on it.

The King responded to Nyhontsho’s statement on 30 December 2025 on the contentious matter, which sparked a showdown between the Zulu monarchy and the ministry. 

Advocate Vela Mngwengwe, the chief executive officer of Ingonyama Trust, later used the statement to instruct staff to ignore King Misuzulu’s purported suspension of the board and others.

He told them the monarch had no power to put them on ice.

• READ: King Misuzulu Bars “Suspended” Ingonyama Trust Board Members From Entering The Entity’s Offices

The King, currently in seclusion before his marriage ceremony, signed the letter to Nyhontsho.

“The Trust Act establishes a fiduciary duty on the part of the Trustee, and by extension the Board which was enacted as an administrative arm of the Trustee, who must administer the Trust for the benefit, material welfare and social wellbeing of these tribes, communities and residents,” King Misuzulu said in his letter to Nyontsho.

Furthermore, the King told Nyhontsho that under the common law, a trustee has a fiduciary relationship with the trust’s beneficiaries, which involves the duty to act in their interests.

“As the Ingonyama I not only have this duty in relation to the Trust, but by virtue of my authority as the Zulu Monarch and traditional leader, my duty to the people under my authority is amplified. In a clear recognition of this principle the legislature deemed it necessary to assign a reigning king the title of chairperson of the Board without appointment or election in order to exercise this fiduciary duty and oversight on the affairs of the Board. 

“This is being undermined by my removal as the signatory on the bank accounts of the Trust and not consulted with meetings held without me and in the absence of my nominee. This position remains trite in our law and has been confirmed extensively in case law,” the King added. 

The “suspended” board members are Advocate Linda Zama, Inkosi Mabhudu Tembe, Inkosi Phallang Molefe, Inkosi Sibonelo Mkhize, Dandy Matamela and Nomusa Zulu.