LIMPOPO – Greater Giyani Municipality has handed over deeds of grant to 94 residents who are among the beneficiaries of the 539 residential sites demarcated and sold by the municipality during the 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years.

The sites were made available to residents seeking residential properties, with the municipality saying it has so far completed the preparation of deeds of grant for 190 of the 539 sites.

Although 190 deeds were prepared, only 94 recipients had confirmed their availability to attend Wednesday’s official handover ceremony.

Formalising ownership in Giyani

The municipality completed the registration of the sites on June 29 this year and started billing beneficiaries at the end of July.

Speaking after the handover, Greater Giyani Mayor Thandi Zitha reminded the new property owners of the importance of following municipal procedures before undertaking any construction on their properties.

“A lot has been explained about what is expected of you as the deed of grant holders, but what we’re asking for as a municipality is that you follow the protocol when it comes to building your houses,” Zitha said.

“We don’t want to reach a point where we bring a bulldozer to demolish your walls and houses because you built without an approved plan.”

Mayor urges owners to follow building rules

Zitha also cautioned recipients against selling their properties to buyers who may want to convert the residential sites into business properties, particularly student or other accommodation facilities.

She said the municipality had no authority to prevent property owners from selling their sites but warned that a subsequent application to rezone a residential property for business purposes was not automatically guaranteed to succeed.

“We are aware that now that you have deeds of grant, there is a possibility of people approaching you with an offer to buy your stands for accommodation flats, and we have no right to tell you whether to sell or not,” explained the mayor.

“But we don’t guarantee that if a person comes to us to apply for the rezoning of your site to a business site, we will approve it,” she continued.

“Everything lies with you, and you will be the one to face the consequences if those to whom you sold your site come to us for rezoning and we refuse,” she warned.

More deeds to follow

The handover forms part of the municipality’s ongoing process of formalising ownership of the 539 residential sites, which were established to help address the residential sites backlog in Giyani.

Although the sites are not enough to address the backlog, they are expected to provide much-needed relief to residents seeking residential properties.

Further hand-overs are expected as the remaining deeds are processed.