Malema calls for continued debate on Ingonyama Trust

Delegates from the African National Congress (ANC) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were among the high-level dignitaries that visited the KwaKhethomthandayo Royal Palace in Nongoma on Tuesday.

Preparations are underway for the King's send-off after he died last week Friday.

The monarch's passing thrust into the spotlight a number of unresolved issues.

The now fiercely contested throne is among the matters on the table, as well land issues.

It's understood the King's successor will have the heavy task of resolving the Ingonyama Trust debate.

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Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema says the King's passing is no reason to shy away from the rigorous land debate.

"The successor must continue with the King's legacy; the successor must continue to engage with all of us on the land question. The Ingonyama Trust question is a debate that we should continue to have. It's a necessary debate," Malema said outside the palace gates.

"We shouldn't be a nation that is scared of debating controversial issues including issues that we don't agree on.

The Ingonyama Trust controls close to three million hectares of land in KwaZulu-Natal and the late monarch was its sole trustee.

Government and the monarch have for long been in a tug of war over the Trust, with attempts to repeal the Ingonyama Trust Act.

Advocates of the act want the monarch to continue its control of the land while its opponents want the land controlled by the Ingonyama Trust to be given to those leasing the land and that they should be given title deeds.

KZN traditional leaders fear that government could try to seize the land following the monarch's passing.

Malema added the land debate must unite South Africans.

"The discussion are not necessitated by the desire to kill; we engage because we must find each other. And by finding each other we must be united in purpose of giving our people the land and let them be the rightful owners, so we restore the dignity of black people," Malema added.

ANC secretary general Ace Magashule also preached a message of unity.

"If you remember when we came here after Nasrec (elective conference), we came to the King and the message of the King was one: 'The ANC must unite because the ANC is the glorious movement of the people of South Africa’," Magashule said.

"We're coming here to pass our condolences, we're coming here to pay out last respect to the royal family and we just wanted to say what the King started in terms of uniting us, first and foremost as Africans, was very important."

Former KZN Premier Willies Mchunu told media that he believes the royal family would elect a fitting heir to the throne.

"Filling the shoes of someone who reigned for nearly 50 years is going to be hard record to try and cover," Mchunu said.

"I'm sure the King, anybody who becomes King within the royal family, will be respected as such because that will be the ordainment that they would have got from the royal family but we always believe from God as well."

The family will hold a private funeral for the King on Wednesday night, followed by an official memorial service on Thursday.