The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform welcomes the Cabinet approval for the establishment of the Office of the Valuer-General. The announcement by cabinet comes on the eve of 2013, which is the year in which the department will mark the centenary of the notorious 1913 Natives Land Act. The Office of the Valuer-General (OVG) is one of the institutions which have been proposed in the Green Paper on Land Reform.
This office will also serve as intervention that will help the department in dealing with the problem of people who are inflating land prices when selling to the department. The establishment of the OVG comes as a result of the absence of a nationwide comprehensive, reliable hub for the assessment of property values in the country. The Valuer General will be a statutory office that will be responsible for issues such as:
- the provision of fair and consistent land values for rating and taxing purposes.
- determining financial compensation following expropriation under the Expropriation Act or any other policy and legislation which is in compliance with the constitution.
- the provision of specialist valuation and property advice to government.
- setting standards and monitoring service delivery.
- undertaking market and sales analysis; setting guidelines, norms and standards required to validate the integrity of the valuation data, and,
- creating and maintaining a data-base of valuation information.
The year 2013 marks the centenary of the 1913 Natives Land Act and the success of the Green Paper must be measured by the extent to which it succeeds in reversing the negative impact and legacy of this Act.
Enquiries:
Mphati Sehloho
Tel: 012 312 8112
Cell: 083 977 4040
