Dear Editor
A DA oversight inspection today has confirmed a despicable reality: racial-classification rules are in full swing in Deeds Offices across South Africa.
At the DA oversight visit to the Cape Town Deeds Office today, we witnessed first-hand how citizens are being compelled to declare their race in writing, through the now-mandatory “Form LLL” when buying and transferring property. This disturbing policy is being implemented in full force, limiting South Africans constitutional rights.
The Minister of Land himself has admitted that the regulations are being enforced without any legal framework defining what “race” means in South Africa today. Earlier this year, Minister Mzwanele Nyhontso admitted in a written reply to Parliament that there is no legal or legislative definition of race underpinning the regulation. Yet, Deeds Office officials are under instruction to reject and throw out property transfers that omit race and gender information, effectively enforcing an extra-legal form of racial classification.
This is not just a bureaucratic formality it is the resurgence of racial classification thinking of old, now under a democratic façade. South Africans are now being forced by the Deeds Office to choose racial categories that have no legal definition, no verification mechanism, and no privacy protection – under the guise of “land audit” data collection.
Today at the Deeds Office the DA confirmed with the Deeds Senior Manager on duty, that Deeds Registry data only covers formal, individual property transfers, and it excludes trusts, companies, communal land, or redistribution transfers. This completely undermines the Minister’s reason for this crude racial law. This makes the racial statistics collected inherently incomplete and misleading.
Another official at the Deeds Office acknowledged to the DA that credibility challenges abound with the racial data being collected, as there are no mechanisms to affirm and verify race. This reinforces the DA’s position that there are more accurate, constitutional, and non-intrusive ways to gather information for land audits, without resorting to forced racial declarations.
The oversight also revealed that officials on the ground are not equipped to answer constitutional or legal concerns raised by citizens and conveyancers alike. We were also told that this is legal and therefore people have no choice but to abide. This demonstrates the reckless and hurried implementation of a deeply flawed regulation.
The DA is calling for the immediate suspension of Form LLL and the racial classification requirement, and at the very least, that the disclosure becomes voluntary.
We will continue our oversight tour to Deeds Office across South Africa to determine the full extent of these draconian regulations.
South Africa does not need a return to racial gatekeeping through the backdoor of “transformation.” We need a rights-based, rational, and non-racial approach to land reform and administration.
Regards
Mlindi Nhanha MP
DA Spokesperson on Land Reform & Rural Development