Land Use
Applications
Problem Statement
- Currently many municipalities utilise manual methods to process land use applications.
- These systems are often not integrated with broader land use management issues as to yield optimal results.
- These lead to undue delays regarding processing time, haphazard approvals or dismissals and incorrect land uses being allocated to a particular piece of land.
- Information is not readily accessible to the relevant users and planning is often done in isolation, without taking cognisance of the needs and impacts from other services.
Solution Statement
- The ecosystem includes a facility that will enable municipalities to receive, consider and process land development applications.
- E-Lodgement seeks to address the absence of an automated system that can assist municipalities with the processing of land development applications.
- The intention is to develop and deliver a facility for the electronic lodgement, assessment and consideration of applications through a secure portal with an automated internal workflow.
In terms of section 16(2) of the SPLUMA regulations,
a land development application will be subjected to what is termed –
Administrative Phase
Commences after a complete development application is submitted along with the completed Assessment Report before the Municipal Planning Tribunal or an authorised official can consider and decide on an application.
Consideration Phase
In terms of SPLUMA regulation 16(7) “the consideration phase is the phase during which the Municipal Planning Tribunal ... must consider the application, whether it be a written or oral proceeding.”
Decision Phase
A decision on the development proposal based on the outcome of the initial assessment, public notification and referrals is made ... notifying the applicant and objectors of the decision and/or their right to appeal.
Land Use Applications
The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform has made the National Spatial Planning Data Repository and E⁠-⁠Lodgement available for use by all municipalities in South Africa as well as the public. E⁠-⁠Lodgement allows members from the public to electronically lodge land use applications. The respective municipality will be informed of the application and process the application electronically, using E⁠-⁠Lodgement.
Follow us and ask more on:

E·Lodgement’s User Profiles
NSPDR Administrator
DRDLR employees assigned as E⁠-⁠Lodgement (NSPDR) administrators. It will be these “super”-users’ responsibility to manage the global settings aspect of E⁠-⁠Lodgement.
Municipal Administrator
Municipal employees assigned as E⁠-⁠Lodgement administrators. It will be these users’ responsibility to manage the settings aspect of E⁠-⁠Lodgement regarding their municipalities.
Land
Use Applications
Using E⁠-⁠Lodgement.
E-Lodgement is to be used by land development applicants to lodge land development applications by completing pro-forma documents online, uploading supporting information and procuring cadastral information, zoning information, land use scheme provisions and related data. This culminates in the compilation of a compliant application and the lodgement thereof with the relevant municipality.
Once the system receives such an application, it will notify the municipality and the applicant of the steps to be taken in the context of the relevant by-law(s), to bring the matter to conclusion.
All documentation relevant to the application process remains on the system for monitoring and auditing. The system will generate reports for end users, including the Municipal Planning Tribunal, planning officials within the relevant municipality.

Top Benefits
of E⁠-⁠Lodgement.
№ | Benefit Description | Value | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
01 | · | Application is fully SPLUMA compliant | · | legislative |
02 | · | Moving away from paper-based systems | · | efficiency |
03 | · | Tracking application progress and status | · | automation |
04 | · | Stores all documentation in a central repository | · | organisation |
05 | · | Displays GIS-based location and status of applications | · | technology |
06 | · | Available on multiple platforms (PC, tablet, mobile) | · | accessibility |
07 | · | Monitoring and evaluation of data in dashboards | · | governance |