The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) welcomes the recent public announcement by the Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB) that it has commenced the refund process for payments collected under unlawful lease agreements concluded with residents on Trust-held land.
This follows the application brought by the LRC in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC) and Others v Ingonyama Trust and Others. In judgment on 11 June 2021, the Court held that the ITB had acted unlawfully and in violation of the Constitution by requiring residents to sign leases and pay rental for land they already occupied under customary law. The Ingonyama Trust and its Board initially sought to appeal this finding but ultimately withdrew their application in the Supreme Court of Appeal on 3 November 2023, thus confirming the obligation to refund payments in terms of the standing High Court order.
In a press briefing on 23 July 2025, acting CEO Siyamdumisa Vilakazi announced that the ITB had begun refunding monies collected under the unlawful lease agreements. The first leases were signed in 2007 and continued to be concluded until 2021, when judgment was handed down. The ITB estimates that 1602 residents qualify for a refund and have budgeted just over R4 million for this purpose.
Although delayed, this development is a positive step toward addressing the plight of residents who were coerced into signing leases and paying rental, undermining their tenure security. The LRC, together with the co-applicants in the case and in collaboration with the Alliance for Rural Democracy (ARD) and the Land and Accountability Research Centre (LARC), will engage affected communities and monitor ITB compliance with the court order to ensure that all qualifying residents are suitably restituted.
