COMMUNAL PROPERTY ASSOCIATIONS: AMENDMENT ACT GAZETTED (AND IN FORCE?)

COMMUNAL PROPERTY ASSOCIATIONS: AMENDMENT ACT GAZETTED (AND IN FORCE?)

• 08 October 2024
• New Legislation
• SA Legal Academy

The Communal Property Associations Amendment Bill’s ‘B’ version has been signed into law and gazetted. In the absence of any reference to commencement by proclamation, Section 24 appears to suggest that the new piece of legislation is now in force.

This is noting that the principal statute applies to communities who have ‘acquired property through restitution by court order in terms of the Restitution of Land Rights Act, 1994’ or any other applicable law – provided that such communities form associations in accordance with the 1996 Communal Property Associations Act itself.

According to a Presidency media statement on the amending legislation, it is expected to:

• clarify the objectives of communal property associations, and
• overcome ‘challenges’ experienced by the Department of Rural Development & Land Reform in implementing the principal statute, including
  • the ‘abuse of power’ by persons elected to association committees
  • the state’s ‘lack of authority’ to intervene, and
  • the department’s limited monitoring and oversight capacity.

In addition, the new piece of legislation:

• includes ‘general plans’ for land administered by communal property associations
• ‘makes it clear’ that the land concerned is owned by residents who are members of an association, and not by the association itself, and
• provides for:
  • the establishment of a communal property associations office, and
  • the appointment of a registrar of communal property associations.

Tabled in April 2017 and passed by Parliament in December 2018, the Bill has been in limbo ever since. It is not clear why.

• amendment Act
• media statement

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