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April 2016
News
T
heDepartment of Local Govern-
ment and Human Settlements
in Bokone Bophirima, through
its Provincial Disaster Management
Centre, held a workshop on how to
raise awareness of sinkholes in the
province. The workshops aim to as-
sist municipalities on how to bemore
resilient when handling disasters.
As these disasters affect infrastruc-
ture, such as housing and transport
routes, it is very important that de-
velopers, contractors and residents
understand all the implications and
measures that can be taken to mini-
mise disasters. “It is imperative that
a culture of risk avoidance is instilled
in our people. It is important that
leaking pipes are reported and that
understanding safety drills can save
lives,” says Eldridge Kgaswane from
the Council of Geoscience.
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Sinkhole
workshop
T
he Rural Development and
Land Reform Deputy Minister,
Mcebisi Skwatsha, handedover
32 title deeds to communities who
lodged their land claims.
Four claimants were given finan-
cial compensation to the value of
R50millionwhile five others received
title deeds. All the claimants lodged
their claims before the initial cut-of
date in 1998.
Skwatsha said the restitution
process might be slow but eventu-
ally all the claims will be attended
to. He explained that the delays,
T
he rates and brackets for trans-
fer duty on the sale of property
fromMarch 1, 2016 will remain
unchanged on all property acquired
up to a value of R2,25 million.
Brackets for transfer duty on
properties of a value of between
R2,25 million and R10 million and
above R10 million were introduced.
The transfer duty rate on a prop-
erty of above R10 million will be
13%, which will lead to an increase
Transfer duty
in transfer duty payable on property
transactions above this amount.
Due to government’s tight fiscal
position, no transfer duty relief was
given at the lower end of the market,
with the exemption threshold un-
changed at R750 000.
The upper end of the market
will have to pay more with regard
to this tax. The maximum value of a
property exempted from transfer duty
was fixed at R100 000 in 2002/03;
R140 000 in 2003/04; R150 000
in 2004/05; R190 000 in 2005/06;
R500 000 in 2006/07 to 2010/11;
R600 000 in 2011/12 to 2014/15 and
R750 000 in 2015/16, with this amount
to remain unchanged in 2016/17.
■
Adjustments to transfer duty on
property in the 2016 national
Budget are to impact only the
upper end of the residential
propertymarket, says Jacquesdu
Toit, Absa Home Loans, Property
Analyst.
Land claimants
in some instances, were caused by
some land owners who resisted sell-
ing their land.
According to the Department of
Rural Development and LandReform,
since the process of land claims start-
ed in 1998, more than 13 000 claims
received were from Gauteng. Of
these, 450 have still to be processed.
Skwatsha reminded land claim-
ants who still wished to lodge their
claims to do so before the cut-of date
in 2019. “We want to make sure that
after this process, there is lasting
peace,” he said.
■