State custodianship of the nation's mineral and petroleum resources and the South African Development Trust Act 18 of 1963 : a critical comparison

Abstract

This dissertation envisages the investigation and determination of the possible correlation between the two phenomena, state custodianship and trusteeship with specific reference to land trusts. Custodianship, as captured in the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Management Act 28 of 2002, and trusteeship, as embodied in the South African Development Trust legislation, being the Native Trust and Land Act 18 of 1936; the Ingonyama Trust Act 3 of 1994 as enacted by the KwaZulu Legislature on the 24th of April 1994, amended with the status of a national Act (provincial Act) in 1997, and re-enacted [by the RSA Parliament] as the KwaZulu-Natal Ingonyama Trust Act 3 of 1994, and the National Water Act 54 of 1956, all confer upon a certain body, the fiduciary obligation to hold, protect and manage certain resources in the interest of a particular designated group of people. The objective of this study is, therefore, to analyse the trust notion as it functioned in terms of the SADT legislation, ITA and the NWA, and compare it to the novel concept of custodianship as it emanates from the MPRDA in order to determine the inherent similarities and differences as well as the implications thereof. This will assist in determining the true nature and impact of the notion of state custodianship as introduced by the MPRDA.