The Herald Online **News**
Land use bungling hampering progress
Guy Rogers
A PUBLIC-PRIVATE land use planning body has called on the government to investigate the department of land affairs for “actively hampering” sustainable development, and undermining government policy.
Ashraf Adam, chairman of the SA Planning Institute (Sapi), said yesterday the department‘s muddling was illegal and hugely damaging.
Sapi represents over 1500 town and regional planners. It is the only body of its kind that regularly engages with national, provincial and local government on land-use planning issues.
“This is vital work in terms of our development and our democracy. If there is not good town planning, for instance, cities will become fragmented. No sustained prosperity will be possible,” Adam said. South Africa‘s planners are among the best in the world and, because they regularly get poached by overseas countries, there is now a dire shortage of people with these skills in the country. In the government‘s 10-year review, land planning was pinpointed as one of the key skills capacity areas that needed to be shored up, he noted.
“It means development applications cannot be processed or will not be processed at a fast enough pace. Right now it is hampering the achievement of a 6% sustained economic growth rate.”
Adam said one of the problems that stemmed from the department‘s lax approach was that it had let the term of office of the sector‘s key regulating body, the SA Council of Planners (Sacplan), expire.
Sacplan is designated by government to “set the standards and competence” of the planning profession.
This situation exists despite the fact that this shortage and the urgent need to rectify it have been identified in government‘s 10-year review, in its macro-economic policy and in the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition initiative, he said.
Sacplan is also meant to define the work done by planners, Adam said. “But there is no statutory body any longer. Not only is this illegal, it undermines the fundamental basis on which all forms of development takes place.”
Although Sacplan‘s term ended on June 8, no process to address this situation has been set in motion by the minister, whose legal duty it is to appoint the council, he said.
Adam said the department‘s tardiness and lack of attention was also manifest in the new Land Use Management Bill. The bill has finally emerged 10 years after the publication of a White Paper which promised to streamline land-affairs law.
But several problems remained, including outdated regulations on sub-division. “Last year, this regulation (regarding sub-division) was declared unconstitutional. But nothing was put in its place. So now anyone can sub-divide agricultural land. This threatens agriculture and food security.”
The bill also fails to address the problem around parallel decision-making, involving various national and provincial institutions. “The result is that decision-making is badly hampered,” he said.
“The South African Planning Institute calls upon parliament to investigate how the land affairs department has been permitted to undermine government policy in such a blatant way.”
The department‘s chief director for communications, Eddie Mohoebi, said he was “following up”. No further response had been received by the time of going to print.