Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa December / Jan 2016 | Page 54
LEGAL
SPLUMA
The Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act
Understanding the Technicalities of the SPLUMA
O
n the 1st of July 2015 the Spatial Planning
and Land Use Management Act 16 came
into effect after being passed by parliament
in 2013. The law gives the Department of Rural
Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) the
power to pass Regulations in terms of SPLUMA to
provide additional detail on how the law should be
implemented.
Importance of SPLUMA and its Regulations
SPLUMA aims to develop a new framework to govern
planning permissions and approvals, sets parameters
for new developments and provides for different lawful
land uses in South Africa as well as providing clarity
on how planning law interacts with differing laws
and policies. Many of the apartheid era laws have left
South African planning laws fragmented, complicated
and inconsistent. As such, section 3 of SPLUMA says
that the law tries to develop a ‘uniform, effective and
comprehensive system’ of planning that ‘promotes
social and economic inclusion’.
There has been a degree of controversy and debate
surrounding the bill, despite its progressive elements.
This is largely a result of the powers that SPLUMA
and its Regulations grant to traditional councils.
The primary complaint being that SPLUMA and
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DEC/JAN 2016 SA Real Estate Investor
its Regulations grant too much power to traditional
councils, who in turn have called for a suspension on
its implementation on the basis that they were not
consulted properly during the legislative process.
What do the SPLUMA Regulations say?
The powers of traditional councils in relation [