As each property owner should be aware, their property has certain land use rights attached to it, which is determined by the zoning of the property.

Zoning of property is now organised through the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act 2013 (Act 16 of 2013) (commonly known as SPLUMA).

In terms of Section 23 and 24 of this act, municipalities are supposed to publish a single land use management scheme which shows the zoning of all the properties in their area.

On 20 April 2018, Madibeng advertised their proposed Land Use Scheme  (LUM Scheme)  for comment in terms of the Madibeng Local Municipality Spatial Planning and Land Use Management By-law.

Unfortunately, this LUM Scheme gets a number of properties’ zoning wrong.

In terms of the relevant by-law, once the LUM Scheme has been available for inspection and comment for a period of 60 days, the zoning as indicated on the LUM Scheme becomes legal and applicable on the property.

This could have incredible implications for properties where the LUM Scheme gets the zoning wrong, since properties previously zoned for residential could suddenly now be zoned for industrial which could have vast rates and  tax implications.

Residents are urged to contact Madibeng Municipality and inspect the LUM Scheme to make sure that their property is zoned right.

The municipality may have made a mistake in the way that they published the LUM Scheme and may have to redo the process, but once they get it right, the LUM Scheme stand to become legal and applicable.

If you need assistance, contact Annaschka Human at our Hartbeespoort offices at 012 259 1166 or Stephni van den Elst at our Brits offices at 012 252 3413.