Scramble to ease jitters over foreign land sales

Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk yesterday moved to calm a jittery property market, saying the draft Integrated Coastal Management Bill would not restrict foreign purchases of coastal land — as threatened by a senior government official last week.

A cabinet statement last week that said draft legislation would help curb the sale of coastal land to foreigners caused consternation, especially at the luxury end of the market. Of an estimated R2-trillion worth of property assets in SA, about R22,5bn worth is owned by foreigners.

There have been repeated threats of a curb on the sale of land, especially coastal land, to foreigners, and last week’s cabinet statement appeared finally to give effect to these threats.

The cabinet statement said: “The environment and tourism minister (Van Schalkwyk) will announce further details on what steps government could take to arrest this trend. Otherwise, South Africans could wake up one day and discover that only foreign nationals and the super-rich had access to our coastline.”

Just hours later, however, government spokesman Themba Maseko issued another statement conceding he had erred in his earlier interpretation of the bill.

He said government had no plans to limit the sale of coastal land to foreigners.

Explaining the confusion, Van Schalkwyk yesterday said the draft adopted by the cabinet last week would give government more teeth to control illegal structures built in the coastal zone.

Although the property industry accepted the clarification, an observer, who declined to be named, said the bill would still shut out foreigners in the coastal areas. “They want stability and do not want to create the notion that foreigners are being shut out. That will be bad for investment. But the reality is that this is some form of regulation.”

The bill, which for the next three months will be open for public comment, gives legal effect to the white paper for sustainable coastal development of 2000 and replaces the Seashore Act and the Control of Dumping at Sea Act. Van Schalkwyk said the bill aimed to preserve the integrity of SA’s coastline but would not restrict the foreign purchase of coastal land as initially reported. It declares the seashore, tidal waters (such as estuaries) and SA’s territorial seas to be coastal public property over which the state must act as trustee, conserving and using it for the benefit of the community and future generations.

“This is the first piece of legislation that gives authority to control illegal structures through issuing of repair and removal notices. This will help government ensure that the ecological integrity of the coastal zone is not compromised”, the minister said.

“The bill also provides new measures to protect coastal areas from being degraded by inappropriate developments and pollution. It will establish a buffer zone inland of the high-water mark within which certain activities will be prohibited and additional development controls will be applied.”

Government will be empowered to prevent development too close to the sea by establishing “set-back lines”.

One provision of the bill will require that public-access servitude be established to ensure that everyone can have access to the coast, which in the past has been restricted by exclusive golf and residential developments.

The bill will also establish a system of coastal planning at national, provincial and local level.