[OSGeo Africa] New electronic system for Deeds Office ( plus other legislation )

[Peter Newmarch]

Chris,

There has been so much politics around the land question - some probably 
false and some probably true. Which is the right and wrong parts is 
anybody's guess. The debate will rage on for a long time while everybody 
is still fixated on race. To get the true facts and figures I do believe 
an independent body / commission is needed and yes, in all likelyhood 
one will have to get owners to fill in there race details. One can no 
longer rely even remotely on surnames as an indication of race. 
Companies and CC's have their own complexities as well - how will they 
as an owner be classified ? or what about trusts ?

Such racial profiling would have to involve some form of classification 
- how white is white and how black is black etc... - besides which I 
think it would have to involve a change to the constitution as well as 
various amendments to UN charters that SA has signed.

If one talks about righting the wrongs of the past - one will also have 
to differentiate between say blacks who where discriminated against 
versus the born frees who where not discriminated against (many are now 
coming of business age and will start purchasing property).  So one may 
even have to have sub groupings of Blacks, Whites, Indians, Coloureds 
etc.. etc... There is also issues around a huge number of people of 
different colours who have acquired SA nationality after working here, 
how will they be classified and counted in the whole land question.

There are just so many variables, it can only work if Home Affairs, 
Cipro and the stock exchange is also on-board - the legislative 
complexity around this are enormous.

Personally I don't see it happening, or if it does happen it will be 
another meaningless count as there are so many issues such as above 
around this issue. A better approach might be to base such figures on 
land claims - at least this is a process based on proof (at least in 
theory anyway).

Thats my two cents worth.

Regards

Peter

Peter Newmarch
Professional Land Surveyor
4Y GeoInformatics Pty Ltd
Tel       : +27 31 5642856
Fax       : +27 31 5643074
Mobile    : +27 82 5705859
eMail     :newmarch at land-surveyors.com  

On 2013/08/20 08:37 PM, Chris wrote:
>      From the front page of todays Mercury ( KZN )
>
>      Land Audit to be based on Race
>      August 20 2013
>      Babalo Ndenze
>
>      http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/land-audit-to-be-based-on-race-
>      1.1564934
>
>
>      The real stuff can be found at the PMG
>
>      http://www.pmg.org.za/minutes/570
>
>      http://tinyurl.comkt8d4q4
>
>
>      So much for a non-racial , non-sexist , new democratic society !
>
>      Where are you Aslam ?
>      ( I know that this will upset the mods -- but you were the one that first
>      posted about the 1913 great touring exhibition. Besides this new
>      legislation will affect every single land "practioner" in SA ! )
>
>
>      CM
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Africa mailing list
> Africa at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/africa
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/africa/attachments/20130820/eacfa709/attachment.html>