GRAAFF-REINET NEWS — Well-known businessman Johann Rupert has sponsored 1 000 title deeds to help bring about transformation through home ownership for the poorest people living in Stellenbosch and the Graaff-Reinet area.
The Free Market Foundation (FMF) is assisting township dwellers in South Africa to have the title deeds for the properties on which they live transferred to them.
The Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Act (Act 112 of 1991) placed an obligation on municipal councils to transfer land in municipal townships to registered residents living there at the time the Act’s promulgation. However, municipalities often did not have the funds to do so, and so the FMF is now transferring title deeds as part of the Khaya Lam (my home) project.
The project was initiated in the Ngwathe Local Municipality in the Free State, and to date 1 650 title deed transfers have been completed.
Last month, 117 transfers were made in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape, with about 2 000 more to follow in Stellenbosch and the Graaff-Reinet area.
At the moment, the FMF is busy identifying qualifying households, which involves a great deal of paperwork and co-operation from the municipality, so no time frame for the transfers can be given at this stage. There is a huge problem in the Graaff-Reinet area with trying to find original documentation.
Many maps do not show properties’ encroachments.
In Nieu-Bethesda, the authorities are having problems sourcing documents, and in Umasizakhe they are busy identifying which properties can be transferred. FMF has earmarked 92 semi-detached houses in Lotusville, Aberdeen, which is being resurveyed- this is expected to be finished by June.
“The only criteria for applicants are that they must be registered with the municipal council and have permission to occupy the land they live on,” said Perry Feldman, land reform project manager at FMF. “We are very disappointed that people’s expectations have been raised, but due to the complexities of the documentation, which we did not expect, they are having to wait a lot longer than we had planned,” he said.
Just to add to the logistical difficulties, the Deeds Office holding documentation for the Eastern Cape has moved from Cape Town to King William’s Town. Next month, Feldman and his team will be visiting King William’s Town with surveyors to try to sort out some details.
It is hoped that before too long, many residents in the Graaff-Reinet area will have cause to be grateful to the Rupert family for their vision of “Title the People”.
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