KING Goodwill Zwelithini wants President Cyril Ramaphosa to clarify government’s position on Kgalema Motlanthe’s statement about dissolving the Ingonyama Trust.
Speaking at a meeting of traditional leaders in Ulundi, KZN on Monday, the king said he wanted an urgent meeting with the president.
He said he wanted to ask him if the government intended to implement Motlanthe’s recommendation.
The former president angered the king and traditional leaders when he said that the Ingonyama Trust must be dissolved and the land placed in government control for redistribution to the people.
Judge Jerome Ngwenya, the chairman of the trust, told Daily Sun yesterday that the king is prepared to meet Ramaphosa anywhere in the country.
“Since earlier this year, we have been waiting for Motlanthe to come to us and explain how he came to that conclusion. But he has refused.
“Now the king wants the president to clarify once and for all whether government intends to take our land,” said Ngwenya.
He said meeting Ramaphosa was not the only option as the king’s legal team was preparing to take government to court. But Ngwenya said the king told his legal team to wait until the end of the year because he wanted to look at other strategies.
During the opening of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature in February, the king appealed to all “legitimate” Zulus to each donate R5 or more for the legal battle he intended launching against parliament if it resolved to repeal the Ingonyama Trust Act.
Ramaphosa’s spokeswoman, Khuselo Sangoni-Diko, said the president had met the king before and would have no problem meeting him again.