Gauteng MEC for Human Settlements, Urban Planning and CoGTA Lebogang Maile has said the department will fast-track the issuance of 50 000 Title Deeds to residents. The MEC announced this during a groundbreaking meeting with Mayors, Members of Mayoral Committees responsible for Human Settlements, Planning and Infrastructure from ten (10) out of eleven (11) municipalities in Gauteng City Region on Friday, 11 October 2019.
The purpose of the meeting was to deal with the backlog of title deeds across all municipalities by streamlining the process of issuance of title deeds between the two tiers of government in the province. The meeting was characterised by frank and open engagements on how best the two spheres of government can work together to remove unnecessary bureaucratic bottlenecks, so as to fast-track the issuance of title deeds.
The meeting was attended by political heads and representatives from almost all municipalities in the province and should see a faster pace with regards to title deeds issuance going forward, with the province aiming to release at least 50 000 title deeds by the end of this current financial year, with the cooperation of the various municipalities. One of the ground-breaking initiatives the province wants to introduce, is to sponsor legislation through the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on the sensitive matter of family titles, which will enable our people to create multi-generational land ownership, a critical aspect in breaking out of cycles of poverty within family units.
The province currently has a title deeds backlog of about 133 819, affecting more than 246 townships. Municipalities are strategically located to fast-track the roll out of tile deeds in order to address this problem. The meeting committed itself to accelerating the issuance of title deeds to our communities in the province, as part of our drive to restore ownership of the land back to the people and give them an asset which can act as collateral, enhancing their capacity to participate within the mainstream economy.
Another key area that was resolved upon by the meeting, was to speed-up the proclamation of townships. This will be done as a result of progressive engagements that were initiated by Provincial Government with the Deeds Office on the relaxation of some conditions towards proclamation of townships by our municipalities, a major impediment to title deeds registration and local economic development. The Deeds Office indicated that they can allow title deeds registration without Section 113 on old townships where conditions were not set.
The meeting also discussed the pertinent issue of hijacked buildings and the blatant disregard of municipal by-laws, with a principled agreement by our municipalities to rapidly attend to such cases, where the Rental Housing Tribunal does not have jurisdiction.
The key outcomes of the meeting will be shaping the agenda for the Human Settlements Summit, to be convened later this year 2019, as part of moving towards an integrated human settlements delivery ecosystem in Gauteng. All parties to the meeting showed a much welcome willingness to work together in a bipartisan manner to accelerate service delivery in the province in line with President Ramaphosa’s #Khawuleza and Growing South Africa together ethos during the sixth term of office of the post 94 democratic dispensation
Source: Gauteng Province