Deeds Office Rules Board Doubling Down on Racial Classification

Dear Editor

The DA will submit a second Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application to the Deeds Registries Regulations Board to obtain the official minutes of its meeting on 20 October 2025, after the Board has refused to release them despite requests.

At this meeting, the Board resolved to continue with mandatory racial profiling in property transfers. The Board meeting was considering a most strong objection to this mandatory race declaration, put forward by the DA.

We are challenging the continued mandatory requirement for property transferees to declare race and other demographic data before a transfer can be registered.

This requirement, which stems from Regulation 18 of the Deeds Registries Regulations, has no lawful basis. South Africa has no legal or statutory definition of “race”, making any compulsory race classification not only arbitrary, but constitutionally indefensible.

During a Board meeting held on 10 October 2018, chaired by the current Chief Registrar of Deeds, it was clearly recorded that completion of the LLL form was to remain voluntary.

These minutes from 2018 were obtained by the DA through a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application.

The Board has since backtracked on that position and now insists that disclosure of race is mandatory, without providing any transparent justification or statutory authority for the change.

The DA has repeatedly raised concerns about:

• the lack of legal clarity surrounding the basis for mandatory demographic disclosure;
• the constitutional implications of compelling individuals to classify themselves by race; and
• the absence of public consultation before imposing such a requirement.

The DA maintains that the forced disclosure of race data in property transactions violates the rights to privacy, equality and human dignity enshrined in the Constitution.

The DA will continue to fight for a non-racial, transparent, and rights-based system of property registration.

Regards

Mlindi Nhanha MP
DA Spokesperson on Land Reform and Rural Development