The City of Johannesburg has dismissed the Johannesburg Attorneys' Association's (JAA's) claims that there are thousands of rate clearance certificates outstanding, because of the city's implementation of SAP.
The JAA said earlier this month that it was considering going to court to force the city to do its job and process rate clearance certificates. The association says there are thousands of certificates outstanding, some of which have been due for months, and the delay is holding up property registration.
However, Mike Dube, director of value-chain resource integration in the city's revenue and customer relationship management department, says the JAA claims an exorbitant amount of outstanding certificates.
Kgamanyane Maphologela, deputy director of customer communications in the revenue and customer relationship management department, concedes there have been delays in issuing certain clearances while the city is rolling out the new IT system.
He says, on average, about 2 000 certificates are outstanding at any given time, which is within reason. These certificates are delayed by outstanding figures from service arms, such as Johannesburg Water, City Power and Pikitup.
Maphologela says the city has asked for evidence of outstanding certificates from the JAA - and only 360 submissions were made, of which more than 50% had already been issued. The balance is being resolved.
Dube says the implementation of the SAP system in the city's billing system will be completed at the end of the month, and staff are undergoing intensive training on SAP and refresher training is scheduled for the beginning of next month.
More to tally
However, Anton Theron, acting chairman of the JAA's property committee, says outstanding clearances are still being added up - at the city's request.
Theron says the JAA has received numerous complaints from its members, and is working through these complaints to present a list to the city. He says this is being done at the city's request so that it can have a clearer understanding of how many certificates are overdue.
The JAA expects to present the city with more than 1 000 complaints from its members, but this figure does not include issues that are being experienced by other conveyancers who do not belong to the JAA. As a result, the final number of outstanding issues will be higher.
In addition, the South African Property Owners' Association (Sapoa) has joined forces with the JAA to compel the city to sort out the delay in clearance certificates. Legal manager Tsakane Shiludane says its members are complaining about the SAP implementation project, which is causing delays. “The problem is very bad,” he says.
Shiludane explains that the delays in getting rate clearances means property cannot be transferred, estate agents and lawyers are paid late, and people end up paying occupational rent to the previous owners unnecessarily.
Sapoa is taking legal advice to determine what its options are and - in the interim - is trying to set a high-level meeting with city representatives, says Shiludane.
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