Gloves come off in attorneys, government fight

‘For the Pretoria deeds office to be decimated in the proposed manner is utterly nonsensical’

THE PRETORIA Attorneys Association has taken issue with some interpretations by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform of a High Court order related to the realignment of the Pretoria and Johannesburg deeds registries.

The order resulted from a settlement agreement that was reached between the parties last week.

It followed the association launching an urgent application to interdict the department from implementing a proposed decision by the department and/or final decision by the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, to amend the area of jurisdiction of the Pretoria and Johannesburg deeds registries, pending an application to review and set aside any such a decision.

Responding to an article about the interdict published in Business Report on Friday, Tshepo Diale, a spokesperson for the department, said yesterday it wanted to clarify that the order was a result of an agreement reached between the parties.

Gareth Shepperson, the chairperson of the property law committee of the Pretoria Attorneys Association, agreed, but stressed that the interdict that was requested by the association and 12 law firms had, nevertheless, been incorporated in the court order.

Diale said the court order did not prevent the registrar of deeds from taking the necessary steps in preparation for the realignment of the deeds registries of Johannesburg and Pretoria.

“As such, the office of the chief registrar of deeds is continuing with preparations towards the planned realignment, which includes the identification of manual and electronic records and receiving names of voluntary transferees from the deeds registry staff members.

“In addition to this, a period of 15 days will be granted following the minister’s approval to allow interested parties to lodge objections should they wish to do so,” he said.

But Shepperson described these comments as “disingenuous”, adding that the court order specifically interdicted the minister, department and chief registrar of deeds from implementation.

Shepperson said it only exempted certain actions by the department, which the department had already confirmed in a memo to the minister had already been completed. “Therefore, the process has, for all intents and purposes, been completely halted,” he said.

Diale said the minister had confirmed she had not yet approved the implementation of the Johannesburg and Pretoria deeds registries realignment process, but the department, through its deeds registry office, was “determined to proceed with the process of realigning the deeds registries’ areas of jurisdiction with provincial and municipal boundaries around the country”.

Shepperson questioned whether this comment was not contradictory, because it confirmed that the minister had not yet approved the process and immediately thereafter stated that the department was determined to proceed.

Diale said the realignment process was aimed at aligning the deeds registries in terms of the constitution to ensure that each deeds registry office serviced the province in which it was located.

Shepperson described these comment as “utter nonsense and disingenuous”.

He said the applicants dealt with this issue extensively in their court papers and clearly demonstrated that there was “zero benefit to the public and that a deterioration in service delivery is the more likely outcome”.

Tiaan Joubert, the chairperson of the Pretoria Attorneys Association, said in a letter to the association’s members that the court order was “a significant victory for the numerous small law firms that would cease to exist if the proposed move went ahead”.

“The Pretoria deeds office is widely recognised as a ‘pocket of excellence’ within government, and to be decimated in the manner proposed is utterly nonsensical,” he said.