Zulu King Misuzulu’s Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB) has broken ties with its commercial arm, Ingonyama Holdings, following its failure to recover a loan of R41 million from the latter.
ITB acting chief executive officer Siyamdumisa Vilakazi announced this during a media briefing held at the entity’s headquarters in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday.
Vilakazi accused former ITB chairperson Judge Jerome Ngwenya, who was late King Goodwill Zwelithini’s right-hand man, of having hijacked the holdings, which is now allegedly refusing to pay back the R41 million.
“We therefore state categorically today that the Ingonyama Trust and the Ingonyama Trust Board have formally disassociated themselves from Ingonyama Holdings,” said Vilakazi.
Ngwenya declined to comment when contacted by Isolezwe and did not respond to questions sent by this reporter.
Vilakazi said the holdings took a loan of R10 million in March 2021, another R10 million in July 2021, and R21 million in November 2021, when Ngwenya was the chairperson of both the ITB and the holdings, which made it difficult for the ITB to hold its subsidiary accountable.
He said the Ingonyama Holdings’ failure to repay the money led to the Auditor-General raising questions about the recoverability of these loans.
“The amounts had to be accounted for in the consolidated financial statements of the Ingonyama Trust and its subsidiary.
“The board has been unable to perform any proper recoverability assessment because it does not have access to the financial records, including basic bank account records, of Ingonyama Holdings,” said Vilakazi.
During the briefing, which was also attended by ITB’s deputy chairperson, Advocate Linda Zama, it became clear that there was no love lost between Ngwenya and the current board, whose chairperson is King Misuzulu.
Vilakazi described Ingonyama Holdings as a hijacked entity “that carries no mandate whatsoever from the Ingonyama Trust or its board”.
He said the ITB had formally informed all its stakeholders, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) Minister Mzwanele Nyhontso, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli, and the Provincial House of Traditional and Khoi-San Leaders, about its disassociation with the holdings.
Vilakazi said the ITB was currently pursuing civil and criminal actions against the holdings.
Ingonyama Trust, which was formed in 1994, incorporated the holdings in 2019, but according to the new board, Ngwenya became the holdings’ director and chairperson without a board resolution.
Vilakazi said Ngwenya declined to step down as the director of the holdings when ITB instructed him to do so towards the end of last year.
“We characterise this as a fraudulent hijack of Ingonyama Holdings, aimed at obstructing legitimate shareholder governance and oversight.
“In response, the board lodged a formal complaint with CIPC (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission) on 14 February 2025, requesting an investigation into these fraudulent acts, and the complaint was escalated to CIPC’s Fraud and Risk Unit,” said Vilakazi.
Vilakazi said the board also opened a fraud and hijacking case on February 18 this year at Pietermaritzburg’s Alexandra police station.
“We continue to await a formal response from the Commercial Crimes Unit,” he said.
Vilakazi said the board was astonished when it discovered that the Ingonyama Holdings’ registered address was changed on March 22, 2024, without ITB’s authorisation, from 65 Trelawney Road, Fillan Park, Pietermaritzburg, to 91 Oxford Road, in Saxonwold, Johannesburg.
“The circumstances under which this change was effected, and the identity of the filer, remain unknown but could only have been orchestrated by the removed directors (including Ngwenya) or those acting on their behalf. This conduct, too, is regarded as fraudulent,” said Vilakazi.
The board said the king, who is Ingonyama Trust’s sole trustee, was aware of the decision to cut ties with the holdings, although he was not present at the meeting where it was made.
“Although His Majesty is the chairperson of the board and the sole trustee, because of his status, it has not been possible for him to be physically present at board meetings.
“However, because this matter is very important, we have kept His Majesty informed via his private office as the protocol does not allow us to be in direct communication with him,” said Zama.
Zama said Ngwenya was chairperson of the ITB between 1998 and 2023 because the Ingonyama Trust Act allowed King Zwelithini to nominate his preferred four people to sit on the board.
“The Act allows the sole trustee (the king) to appoint a nominee to be the chairperson of the board. The late king (Zwelithini) appointed Mr Ngwenya as his nominee as the chairperson of the board, which was very powerful. The question would be, what was the strength of that board?”
Zama said that under the new ITB structure, it was the first time that amakhosi serving on the board were allowed to interrogate decisions.
“I am the oldest serving member of ITB, and when I joined in September 2021, the protocol did not allow the four amakhosi (who were members) to query what the king’s nominee was saying. It was so abnormal that it became clear to me that we were in trouble.
“There was a decision that was taken in my presence, and I did not agree with transferring R21 million from ITB to Ingonyama Holdings because the chairperson (Ngwenya), who was wearing two caps, was conflicted, and when I was overruled, I tendered my resignation,” said Zama.
However, she withdrew her resignation after being begged by the then DALRRD minister Thoko Didiza. She was appointed the deputy chairperson of the new ITB on May 23, 2023.
