Planning law reform and recent developments in the Western Cape

Spencer Dreyer, the SAGI Western Cape branch Cadastral Commission Chairperson, provides an overview of the current legislative environment and its implications for land surveyors. We are living in exciting and challenging times as the dawn of a new era of national and provincial planning legislation redefining the roles and responsibilities of both provincial and local government are upon us. Business as we know it will soon be radically transformed. The declaration of unconstitutionality and invalidity of parts of the Development Facilitation Act No 67/1995 together with various other landmark court judgements providing clarity on the roles and responsibilities of various levels of government regarding planning matters, has accelerated the law reform process both at national and provincial levels of government… (more)

Speakers at South African Surveying and Geomatics Indaba 2013

The organisers of the South African Surveying and Geomatics Indaba 2013, the South African Geomatics Institute (SAGI) and EE Publishers, are pleased to announce that the conference will be opened by Mmuso Riba, the Chief Surveyor-General of South Africa. The conference is being held on 23 and 24 July 2013 at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg… (more)

Public hearings and feedback on the draft Geomatics Profession Bill

The parliamentary portfolio committee on Rural Development and Land Reform held public hearings on the draft Geomatics Profession Bill on 16 April 2013. PLATO, SAGI, GISSA, IMSSA and the SA Council for Planners (SACPLAN) gave oral submissions at the hearings. Full details are as follows… (more)

Geomatics Profession Bill: the saga continues

Reading through the submissions at the recent parliamentary public hearings into the Geomatics Profession Bill, it was evident that GISSA, SAGI, IMSSA, and PLATO had common concerns about the somewhat indifferent consultation process, the inadequate defining of the geomatics profession, and the representivity of the new geomatics council. Most parties making submissions expressed their frustration with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) saying that comments submitted on previous occasions were not acknowledged, no feedback was provided and there was no evidence of the comments having been incorporated into the Bill… (more)

Geomatics at Tshwane University of Technology

When the previous Acting Head of Department (HoD) Geomatics at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) retired while the senior lecturer was on sick leave, the department was placed as a unit under the Department of Civil Engineering.  After six months as a unit headed by a section head, the department regained its status as the Department of Geomatics from 1 April 2012 with a new HoD, Ivan Muzondo. However, by then, employers, partners and in particular the South African Geomatics Institute (SAGI) had raised concerns about the developments at TUT’s Geomatics Department… (more)

Surveyors hold annual council meeting

SAGI held its 9th Annual Council Meeting in KwaZulu Natal on 24 and 25 May 2012. The financial budget was approved along with a 10% increase in fees for the coming year. Branches will also look at other funding possibilities to supplement this as we move towards a long-held aim of being in a position to employ a permanent CEO in the coming years… (more)

Message from the SAGI President

SAGI held an Exco meeting on 16 February 2012 in East London, at which many items where discussed. I have reported on some these: SAGI SURE – PI Insurance, AfricaGeo – conferencing, Branch meetings, Project Vulindlela, Legislative issues and General items… (more)

SAGI national round-up for 2011

SAGI, as always, has been very busy this past year addressing legislation, establishing marketing material and sorting out industry problems as best we can. There have been some notable achievements at a national level… (more)

Update from the new SAGI president

We are glad to see that there is much improvement in the Geomatics bill from earlier versions and the bill will now allow for the establishment of the South African Geomatics Council (SAGC) with legislation which will allow for the publication of a recommended tariff and implement Continuous Professional Development (CPD). Additionally, the council “must” investigate work reservation; no doubt this will in time turn out to be a very hot topic in the survey engineering domain… (more)

Mobile mapping for surveyors – Adding value to your firm

High definition scanning whether terrestrial, mobile or airborne has a wide application field in the survey industry. To simply ignore this fact and think that it is not going to affect the industry is a serious mistake. The survey firms that have started to implement this technology are already reaping the benefits… (more)

The land survey tariff

A tariff should be an open contract between a service provider (the surveyor) and the public, filed with a regulating body (PLATO/SAGI). The conditions of providing a service to the public including rates, fees and charges. At a minimum, tariffs imposed must cover the cost of providing the service, maintaining this service at an optimum quality that is acceptable to the customer, additional research and other indirect costs… (more)

AfricaGEO 2011 Conference

Building on the proud tradition of Conference of Southern African Surveyors (CONSAS) the organising committee is proud to announce that the 1st AfricaGEO Conference will be held in Cape Town at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) from 30 May to 2 June 2011. AfricaGEO is being organised by South African geomatics associations, and enjoys the full support of, amongst other organisations – PLATO, GISSA, Hydrographic Society of South Africa, Institute of Mining Surveyors of South Africa, the Association of Aircraft Operating Companies and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform… (more)

Plato: Academic accreditation report

The Professional and Technical Surveyors Act 40/1984 requires the SA Council of Professional and Technical Surveyors (PLATO) to accredit academic courses as qualifying graduates of those courses for registration in the PLATO categories of professional and technical practitioners. Under Section 19 of the Act there is established the Education Advisory Committee (EAC) one of whose functions is “to investigate the syllabus of instruction and the standard of training” provided by educational institutions… (more)

Surveyors response to work reservation for planners

The Dacomb Report seriously errs in presuming that sweeping “ivory tower” authority should be given to planners. Such singular power would be disastrous for the general development of South Africa; it is certainly anti-competitive and is probably unconstitutional. Keeping in mind Lord Acton`s famous observation that “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, SAGI and its members will not allow this to happen… (more)

Audiocast: PositionIT editor interviews Gavin Lloyd, chairman of SAGI (MP3 file)