Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini has said he wants South Africa's president to guarantee that his territories will be exempt from forthcoming land reforms.

"The president... must tell us and then sign an agreement that the land of the Zulus will not be touched," he said, speaking at the annual Shaka Day celebration in Durban.

The king controls 2.8 million hectares of land through a corporate entity called the Ingonyama Trust.

In August, President Cyril Ramaphosa made the controversial announcement that South Africa's constitution would be changed to explicitly allow for the expropriation of land without compensation.

Land reforms were first promised when white-minority rule ended in South Africa in 1994.

White people, who make up just 9% of the population, own 72% of the farmland that is held by individuals, government figures show.