The Johannesburg Deeds Office is expected to move to new premises within the next six weeks, a decision spurred by ongoing staff protests and critical safety issues within its current building. This announcement follows discussions between the Director-General of the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development and the Chief Registrar of Deeds, indicating a necessary response to persistent occupational health and safety (OHS) challenges.

Read more: Johannesburg deeds office remains closed as elevator issues persist

Sibusiso Ndzala, the marketing officer for the Public Servants Association (PSA), reported that the move aims to provide a safer work environment and normalise service delivery disrupted by unsafe conditions. The current building, Marble Towers in central Johannesburg, has been plagued by serious OHS violations, leading to operational disruptions and employee dissatisfaction.

The building received a prohibition notice in December for failing to comply with OHS regulations, with a 30-day deadline for improvements that has since lapsed. Despite this, the premises remain operational, with many staff members expressing reluctance to use the elevators due to ongoing safety concerns.

Employees are apprehensive about various issues, including malfunctioning lifts, construction activities occurring without safety measures, poor ventilation, and the presence of asbestos in the ceiling tiles. Due to these hazards, staff members are currently operating from the ground floor and have resorted to rotational shifts while the logistics of the relocation are planned.

Also read: Update: The Johannesburg Deeds offices have re-opened on the 6th of March and are fully effective.

Amidst these challenges, city councillors conducted an oversight visit to the Deeds Office, where they confirmed ongoing issues with the building’s infrastructure and its impact on the safety and comfort of employees. Councillor Daniel Schay noted that while some lifts were operational again, deep-rooted problems remained, and a plan to rotate workers was developed to continue facilitating the lodgement of deeds.

The Deeds Office has been facing a significant backlog in property registrations, with nearly 12 000 deeds typically processed each month. Staff protests have contributed to delays in the registration process, and members of the Johannesburg Attorneys Association expressed concern over the mounting backlog as the office struggled to manage the workload amidst staffing limitations and operational disruptions.

The situation is made all the more urgent by the fact that the Deeds Office was meant to transition to a new building years ago, with construction delays pushing the expected move date repeatedly further into the future. According to reports, staff now have little confidence that the relocation will occur before 2027, having originally anticipated to settle into the new facility much sooner.

As the promise of a new building looms, employees remain hopeful that the upcoming move will facilitate a safe working environment and restore the efficient processing of property transactions that has been severely impacted over recent months.

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Related article: Residents demand a stop to the back-and-forth issue on title deeds