Land Use Management

Land Use Management is the system of legal requirements and regulations that apply to land in order to achieve desirable and harmonious development of the built environment. Every property within the District is governed by a set of regulations to control development.

The present situation with regards to Land Use Management within the Eastern Cape Province is still being dictated by the absence of new legislation that is to replace the currently applicable legislation as inherited from past administrative systems.

Proposed new legislation (in the form of the Land Use Management Bill), that is to replace current applicable legislation, aims to:

• Provide for a uniform, effective and efficient regulatory framework in the Republic for land use and land use management in the public interest.
• To establish directive principles and compulsory norms and standards for land use management in the Republic.
• To provide for land use schemes.
• To establish Land Use Regulators in all spheres of government.
• To provide for a National Land Use Commission.
• To repeal certain laws.

Until such time as this new legislation is promulgated, local and provincial government have no option but to utilise a range of legislation, the oldest of which dates back to 1934.

As such the Department of Land Affairs has developed a "draft procedures manual" for current applicable land use management legislation in the Eastern Cape Province. The objective of the procedures manual is to provide guidance to local municipalities in the practice of land use management as per applicable current legislation.