South Africa

Land Affairs

Call to lower tax on property transfers in SA - 27 January
Countries that place a high value on individual home ownership almost always ensure that their property transfer tax is low and if SA really wants to revive its housing market and get it back to "śnormality", it should be looking at reviewing the transfer duty scale. - Business Report website

Cape land transfer dispute resolved - 30 January
A bitter dispute over a controversial land transfer by the former ANC-led government in the Western Cape  has been resolved. Over 1000 hectares were transferred to the national government by the then ANC-controlled provincial administration just days before last year's election. "Minister Sexwale has helped us get the 1400 hectares returned, and he helped us get that returned without a court case. That was very helpful", Premier Helen Zille said. Former premier Lynne Brown denied there was anything untoward about the deal. - Eye Witness News website

Civil servant fined for illegal St Lucia building - 5 February
A Pretoria civil servant has been fined R15 000 and ordered to demolish a house he built illegally in the St Lucia Wetland Park in Zululand. The Pietermaritzburg regional court also ordered Jacobus Serfontein to restore the garden to its original pristine condition. Serfontein was convicted yesterday of erecting the house on a world heritage site without authority ; entering the site or living there without authority ; and establishing a French drain and water sewerage system and gardening without approval. He had pleaded guilty. He was fined R100 000, of which R85 000 was conditionally suspended, and sentenced to five years' imprisonment both conditionally suspended in totality. - Sowetan website

Julius Malema & your property rights - 3 February
The ANC Youth League, becoming increasingly vocal and more controversial in its views, gives investors in South African residential property its blessing - provided they are not foreigners. This was the message from Floyd Shivambu, spokesperson for the ANC Youth League, in response to questions from Realestateweb, property news site in the Johannesburg-listed Moneyweb stable. - realestateweb website
Keyphrases :
Expropriation
Foreign property ownership
Nationalisation

Municipal Management and Procedure

Rates relief in sight for homeowners - 4 February
Thousands of KZN homeowners who say they have been paying too much in municipal rates will soon be able to take their cases to a valuations appeals board. The MEC for Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Nomusa Dube, said on Thursday that 11 boards had been established in KwaZulu-Natal to review disputes over property valuations. A property's value determines how much its owner must pay in rates. - IOL website
Keyphrases :
Amajuba
eThekwini
Ilembe
Sisonke
Ugu
Umgungundlovu
Umkhanyakude
Umzinyathi
Uthukela
Uthungulu
Zululand

eThekwini

Sewage charges for Durban - 26 January
Frequent trips to the toilet may end up costing you more money, if Durban city officials have their way. Residents may soon find their utility bills reflecting a separate amount for sewage charges. Changes to the method of charging for the disposal of sewage was to come up for approval at the city's executive meeting today. The city's head of the water and sanitation department, Neil Macleod, said the council were considering the introduction of a volume-based charge from July. - IOL website

Africa

Zimbabwe

Mugabe allies block Zimbabwe land audit - 4 February
A two-year land audit was due to begin in Zimbabwe in February - but an angry reaction from President Robert Mugabe's allies and more attacks on white farmers have put that in doubt. - BBC News website

Zim won't honour court's ruling - 27 January
A Zimbabwe high court has rejected a southern African court's ruling that blocked the government's move to resettle blacks on more than 70 white-owned farms, state media said on Wednesday. "The registration and consequent enforcement of that judgment would be fundamentally contrary to the public policy of this country," the Herald newspaper said, citing a judgment by Justice Bharat Patel. - News24 website

Watchdog blasts Zim court's farm ruling - 27 January
A Zimbabwean judge's dismissal of a southern African court ruling that blocked a move to resettle more than 70 white-owned farms had "entrenched the future possibility of human rights abuses" in the country, a SADC watchdog group said on Wednesday. "It seems that Justice Bharat Patel has overlooked considerations of basic human rights and the rule of law in his scramble to appease the dictator [Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe]," said Ben Freeth, a spokesman for SADC Tribunal Rights Watch. - Business Report website

Magistrate who ordered Zim farmer off wants farm for himself - 2 February
The magistrate who ordered the eviction of four white farmers from Chipinge last week has a personal interest in the case. It has emerged that the judge has been offered one of the farms whose owners he ordered off. Human rights lawyers have said this is a "scandal". Magistrate Samuel Zuze last week convicted Chipinge farmer Mike Jahme and three others of illegally staying on their farms. He gave them 24 hours to get off their land, or face two-year jail terms. - Eye Witness News website

Army involvement feared in land grab - 2 February
Yet another South African farming family whose property has been targeted for forced takeover is seeking the help of its own government, with the Zimbabwean army reportedly being enlisted to drive the family off their land. The Du Toits from Excelsior Farm in the Nyazura district have this week informed the South African Ambassador to Zimbabwe in an urgent email that they will soon be forced off their land by soldiers. Mrs Alida Du Toit sent the message to Mlungisi Makalima this weekend after being visited twice by police officials who warned that the army had been enlisted to ensure their removal from the farm. According to South Africa's Beeld newspaper, the army’s involvement is the work of Air Commodore Innocent Chiganze who has claimed that he is the new owner of the farm. - SW Radio Africa News website

United Kingdom

Farmer loses High Court fight to save hidden castle - 3 February
A farmer who built a castle hidden behind a stack of straw bales has lost a High Court bid to save it from being demolished. Robert Fidler, of Salfords, Surrey, built the home - complete with turrets - without planning permission. He kept it hidden until August 2006 but was ordered to tear it down by Reigate and Banstead Borough Council in 2008. Mr Fidler appealed on the basis that his house had stood for four years without anyone objecting to it. The High Court was asked to decide whether the removal of the straw bales and tarpaulin was, in the eyes of the law, part of the building operation. - BBC News website

Regards
Mary

IT/Website Administrator

KwaZulu-Natal Law Society