Saia president Sindile Ngonyama
The South African Institute of Architects (Saia) has echoed the South African Property Owners Association’s (Sapoa’s) call for Rural Development and Land Affairs Minister Gugile Nkwinti to invoke his discretionary powers to expedite spatial planning.
Sapoa earlier this month said the transition from the Development Facilitation Act of 1995 to the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act of 2013 was affecting property development applications and appeals, creating not only significant delays but also unnecessary bureaucracy.
“For this reason, we request that Nkwinti invoke a provision [within the Act that] allows the Minister to prescribe a date by which property development applications, appeals and other matters must be dealt with,” Sapoa CEO Neil Gopal said.
He added that gridlocks in the property sector had a profound economic impact, as the private sector in South Africa accounted for 61% of construction activity and provided employment for 828 000 people, or some 6% of the country’s total employment.
“Saia supports Sapoa’s appeal and any other initiatives which would help unblock barriers to development which, in turn, would lead to faster, more efficient processing of development applications,” Saia president Sindile Ngonyama said, adding that a lot of work still had to be undertaken in the housing development sector.
Saia also pointed out that the infrastructure development target set by government could only be achieved in the event that unnecessary bureaucracy was avoided, in particular, where it pertained to property development.
“We urge the honourable Minister to take heed of the call to facilitate the approval process for applications and appeals in the property development arena”, Saia CEO Obert Chakarisa said.