Investment in Property Is South Africa’s most Compelling Legislative Milestone!

The legacy of occupying a match box house to owning or renovating it; into a mansion is no longer a luxury or an option for a new breed of investors in home-ownership, but rather a wise move of securing a bright future for themselves. Soweto LIFE! Residence and home-owners of property has always been clouded, by controversies, illegal occupation feuds, and family disputes prior to the introduction of the Legislation pertaining to Immovable Property and home ownerships.
There are several statutes which have a direct bearing on the use of immovable property and the rights and duties of property owners. The Group Areas Act of 1950 (Act No. 41 of 1950) was an act of parliament created by the apartheid government of South Africa that assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a system of urban apartheid.

An effect of the law was to exclude non-Whites from living in the most developed areas, which were restricted to Whites (e.g. Sandton, Kensington). It caused many non-Whites to have to commute large distances from their homes in order to be able to work. The law led to non-Whites being forcibly removed for living in the "wrong" areas. This basically became the birth of Soweto and many other Black Townships or Metropolitan areas in South Africa.

The landscape and the atheistic of these Black Townships changed in time when President F. W. de Klerk announced on 1st Feb. 1991 that he would scrap the basic laws underpinning South Africa's system of racial discrimination. Yet apartheid was still entrenched over four decades and has created such economic imbalances between blacks and whites that many South Africans found that in their separate lives little has changed by the reforms.

HOUSING ACT 107 OF 1997 (ASSENTED TO 27 NOVEMBER 1997) to a great extend set a tone to allow the New ANC government to [ACT] To provide for the facilitation of a sustainable housing development process; for this purpose to lay down general principles applicable to housing development in all spheres of government, to define the functions of national, provincial and local governments in respect of housing development and to provide for the establishment of a South African Housing Development Board, the continued existence of provincial boards under the name of provincial housing development boards and the financing of national housing programmes; to repeal certain laws; and to provide for matters connected therewith.

WHEREAS in terms of section 26 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, everyone has the right to have access to adequate housing, and the state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realization of this right; AND WHEREAS the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa recognizes that housing, as adequate shelter, fulfils a basic human need; housing is both a product and a process; housing is a product of human endeavour and enterprise; housing is a vital part of integrated developmental planning; housing is a key sector of the national economy; housing is vital to the socio-economic well-being of the nation;

Competition for resources existed in South Africa long before the arrival of Europeans. The recent xenophobic attacks in the Black Townships in South Africa is not a new phenomenon, Ethnic groups fought each other for control of land use rights. The fighting was centered on the right to use the land for hunting, gathering, and the grazing of cattle. The introduction of European settlers to the area in the mid-1650s intensified the struggle for resources. European colonists brought with them large-scale, or plantation, farming that required large tracts of land.

As part of the Government's land reform programme, the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act of 1998 (PIE) was introduced to afford protection to squatters on land who had no legal right to that land. The procedures laid down to evict squatters is time consuming and costly and if legal proceedings are not instituted expeditiously, the owner of the land could be obliged to find alternative accommodation for the elderly, children, disabled persons and women.

Blacks in South Africa are members of several ethnic groups that are exclusively of African ancestry. Until 1978, the government of South Africa usually referred to them as Bantus. Asians are mainly descendants of people brought from Asia by the British in the 19th century as contract laborers. Most Asians in South Africa today are of Indian descent. They live primarily in Natal and southern Transvaal. Racial groups in South Africa are homogeneous. Blacks, for example, consist of many ethnic groups, each with a distinct language and culture. Major black ethnic groups include the Zulus, the Xhosas, the Sothos, the Tswanas, and the Tsonga and the Vendas.

Richard Maponya is a South African entrepreneur and property developer best known for building a business empire, despite the restrictions of Apartheid and his determination to see the Soweto township develop economically. Economics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Soweto LIFE leader, Residence and Pioneer like Mr. Richards Maponya is a true soldier of economic liberation, a beacon of light and hope in South Africa’s dynamic Property legislation and laws that seeks to transform the livelihood of all who are affected by its history.