South African Experience of
Land Reform - SG Office
John Obree: Surveyor-General Cape
Town
Surveyor General: Cape Town
• Staff - 146
• Land parcels - +2 000 000
Areas of Jurisdiction
Western Cape Province
Eastern Cape Province
The Present “Formal” Land Title System
Title
1. Survey field work
1. Approve
2. Obtain consents
2. Maintain
3. Deal with clients
3. Archive
Unique Identification of Rights
Deeds Office
Registration
Conveyancers
Surveyor-General
Private Land
Surveyors
Cadastral Survey
Circular Farms
(1824)
Land Reform in SA since 1994 • Restitution Act 22/1994 -Land Claims
• Land Redistribution Focus on sustainability: LRAD
• Tenure Reform Communal Land Rights Bill
CLRB - 2002
• Preamble: i.t.o. Sect 25 of the Constitution
– To provide for:
• legal environment and secure tenure
• protection of tenure rights
• transfer of communal land / registration of deeds / alienation of
rights
• legalize customary communal land tenure systems
• administration structures
• Land Rights Boards
• settlement of disputes
• Land Claims Court
• lease and expropriation of communal land
Tenure Reform: CLRB
• Fears:
– Not acceptable to traditional leaders
• allocation and administration of land
• Questions:
– survey and upgrading of rights
• initial survey of admin areas
• identification of PTO sites
• adjudication of boundaries
• effective administration systems
• priority?
Tenure Reform:
PTO - “Permission to Occupy”
(est. 1 million unsurveyed Titles)
Land Administration System
of the former homelands: Transkei & Ciskei:
Eastern Cape
Transkei
29 Admin Districts
each comprising approx. 40 Admin Areas
Ciskei
9 Admin Districts
each comprising approx. 40 Admin Areas
BRIEF HISTORY
• Registration system for 74 yrs.(1920 - 1994)
system suspended - records insecure
• Used by communities on unregistered state
land for:
– Residential lots
– Arable lots
– Other uses:
• grazing
• burial grounds
• sport/recreation
• other purpose
Hernando de Soto 2000. The mystery of
Capital. London: Transworld
Publishers. 243p. ISBN 0-593-04664-1
A2
Quantify the actual and potential value of extralegal assets
(dead capital)
C 1.5.1
Obtain/prepare maps showing the boundaries of individual
parcels
C3
Re-engineer the record keeping and registration processes
Where to from here?- PTO System
dysfunctional.
How do we recognise or bring the majority of
existing PTO’s into the system?
Surveyed and unsurveyed:
Surveyed Districts “quitrents”
Proclamations 174/ 1921
&170/1922
Unsurveyed Districts
Proclamation 26/1936
LESOTHO
KWAZULU NATAL
FREE STATE
EASTERN CAPE
FREEHOLD FARMS
SURVEYED GARDEN &
BUILDING LOTS (Pre 1936)
Action by SGO: CT
• Mandate from DLA 2002 Strategic Plan
– Investigate and capture all PTO land parcels
over next 5 years
• Action?
– planning workshops
– information:investigations & searches
– field trips to collect /copy information
REPORT ON PTO FIELD TRIPS
Currently two field trips have been undertaken, one to MQANDULI Area and one to
BISHO/ZWELITSHA Area.
The objective was to locate the PTO registers and plans photocopy the data and return to
Cape Town and analyze.
The trip to Mqanduli was somewhat disappointing, as the registers and plans had no links.
Using aerial photography we managed to digitize one location onto our spatial as a test site.
Being more prepared, the second trip has been somewhat more successful. We managed to
establish a link between the PTO registers and the plans.
We have taken numerous GPS readings in the locations and will soon start to place these
areas onto our spatial map.
There are numerous problems in that the locals are at first loathe to assist in any way. (You
have to first win over their trust).
The record keeping is a bit of a shambles. Not every location has a plan attached or a
land register which supplies the link between PTO register and sketchplan.
The plans are not to scale, hand drawn, not kept up-to-date and some are in an atrocious
condition.
In the long term where PTO registers, land registers and maps can all be linked – these can be
placed onto our spatial as a picture only (no Data exists on these plans) – where no links or
maps exist – These areas will have to be properly surveyed.
Neil Smith
Assistant Director
PTO plan
Spatial before informal added
Informal digitize
Informal digitized
Thank You from SG Cape Town - “at
your service”