Selling your house is now much easier.

The Emalahleni Local Municipality has withdrawn its application to appeal the judgement and order by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in the Spluma saga. 

The issuing of Spluma certificates has been a major stumbling block in the property market because it resulted in the delay of transfers.

Important judgment in the SCA confirming the constitutional invalidity of municipal by laws (the so called SPLUMA by laws) that allow municipalities to impose onerous restrictions on the transfer of fixed property on the basis that violate our fundamental property rights. pic.twitter.com/LTlW6Vkf7C

— Richard Spoor (@Richard_Spoor) June 22, 2022

These by-laws contained provisions that authorise local authorities to issue certificates of compliance with special planning regulations and require attorneys to obtain certificates of compliance before registrations in the transfer of properties.

The news, however, broke yesterday that they decided against the appeal.

Also the SPLUMA Certificate which you need to get at your local municipality. Basically it confirms that all Land Use and Building Control regulations have been adhered to on the property and existing structures

— Ntando Bembe (@BembeNtando) September 11, 2020

The municipality turned to the SCA after a judgement was held when Glencore took Steve Tshwete -, Emalahleni – and Gert Sibande Local Municipalities to court to prove the by-laws as invalid.

In January 2021 the judge found that Section 86 of this by-law is invalid and suspended the declaration of invalidity for six months to allow the municipality to correct the defect.

The neighbouring municipalities scrapped their Spluma by-law, but Emalahleni decided to keep theirs until their appeal.