Seminar reflects on the implementation of SPLUMA

The regulation of land use is immensely complex and it is a process full of competing interests. Municipalities have been placed at the centre of land use planning and management and they have to adopt and implement municipal by-laws to regulate land use. After two years of the implementation of the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act of 2013 (SPLUMA), the Dullah Omar Institute in collaboration with SALGA and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung hosted a seminar on Implementing SPLUMA, which took place yesterday at the SALGA offices in Cape Town.

The seminar dealt with the implementation SPLUMA by municipalities focusing on matters such as connecting land use management to spatial planning, extending formal planning into informal and formerly unplanned areas, reducing red tape and addressing capacity challenges. The seminar also looked at whether the new municipal by-laws are starting to follow through on the promises of SPLUMA.The director of the Dullah Omar Institute, Prof Jaap de Visser also presented a research report which looked at the 15 planning by‐laws. Government officials, civil society representatives, consultants and academics shared their experience with and views on municipal planning by‐laws.

Speakers included Prof Jaap de Visser (Dullah Omar Institute), Mr Prince Dludla (Dludla Development Planning), Ms Gemey Abrahams (Gemey Abrahams Consultants) and Mr Kobus Munro (Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning).

SPLUMA is a framework for addressing the spatial legacy of apartheid, which continues to segregate communities and disadvantage the poor. It also contains a framework for opening up opportunities for innovative methods for regulating land use. It instructs municipalities to appoint Municipal Planning Tribunals, ensure wall‐to‐wall zoning and decide land use applications.