Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa July 2013 | Page 39
REI Commercial
Government Gets Green Stars
Concern over SETA
Regulations
Saldanha Bay Set For Industrial
Action?
The new Department of Environmental Affairs
(DEA) head office in Pretoria has received
a 6 Star Green Star SA Off ice Design v1
certification from the Green Building Council
South Africa (GBCSA).
This is the f irst government building in
South Africa to achieve a 6 Star Green Star
SA rating, as well as being the first 6 Star
rated green building in the City of Tshwane.
A further stellar accomplishment was that the
project achieved the highest score for a large
commercial office space of this magnitude
awarded by the GBCSA to date.
“ This is an exceptional illustration of
the public and the private sector working
together to deliver an outstanding example
of green building,” said GBCSA CEO Brian
Wilkinson.
The SA Property Owners Association (SAPOA)
announced it has a serious concern with
government’s amendments to the SETA Grant
Regulations. Government has cut mandatory
grants, or refunds, to companies that undertake
sector education training, from 50% to 20% of its
skills development levy. The skills development
levy companies pay is 1% of payroll and they
have been able to claim a proportional refund of
the levy to the extent they have incurred cost on
training and development.
SAPOA President, Estienne de Klerk says:
“This can only be negative for skills development
in SA. It obliterates a key incentive for our
members to train and develop employees and
flies in the face of the National Development
Plan’s policy of fast, inclusive growth through
sk ills development. It also neglects the
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