The Department of Development management has taken the initiative to find an alternative option to re-open all walk-in services under Alert Level 3 of the COVID-19 National Lockdown.
The walk-in services of the Department were disrupted during Alert Levels 5 and 4 of the COVID-19 pandemic regulations, leading to a partial shutdown of the Department’s overall walk-in services.
Operations at the Metro Link building, where building plans are submitted to the Building Development Management (BDM) directorate, will be in full swing as of Monday, 22 June 2020, alongside the Land Use Development Management (LUDM) and Corporate Geo-Informatics (CGIS) directorates.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Development Planning, Cllr Lawrence Khoza, said getting the Department’s services up and running in Alert Level 3 and beyond was a priority for the City of Johannesburg.
“The City is committed to resuming normal development application processes to near-normal operational capacity in Level 3 and subsequent levels,” MMC Khoza said.
The Department has explored other avenues of doing business that are in compliance with the COVID-19 social distancing regulations. Whilst working on re-opening the Metro Link as the interface centre with the public, there will be submission that will continue to take place online.
The LUDM and BDM directorates followed the CGIS communication channels and created email addresses that will be used by the public for the submission of applications.
We are currently liaising with the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC) for the necessary alterations to the Metro Link building to ensure compliance to the COVID-19 safety measures. This includes the installation of Perspex screens at the Metro Link and the open-plan offices at the Metro Centre building.
The services to be rendered by each directorate from the Metro Link and via online services are as follows:
Corporate-Geo Informatics Services
A Property Information desk will be operating from the Metro Link once the City is COVID-19 health compliant. A CGIS Information Officer will be manning the desk and will be supported by the electronic Property Information Service (e-mail: cgisfax@joburg.org.za), operated by the other Information Officers who will be situated on the 8th Floor, Metro at CGIS.
The Public Information counter, which used to operate from the 8th Floor, will be replaced by the Link Property Information Desk until the situation has normalised.
The above-mentioned services on the 8th Floor will be available as of Thursday, 25 June 2020, once the 48-hours needed for decontamination and cleaning have lapsed. This follows a COVID-19 case, reported ahead of the Metro Centre being sanitised and deep cleaned on the weekend of 12 June – 14 June 2020.
Land Use Development Management Services
Services to be provided at Metro Link to include the submission of both Land Use Management and Legal Admin applications. The intention is to provide planning services to customers affected by the digital divide, who are not able to use the current electronic submission process put in place by the Department.
As part of the ease of doing business and ensuring business continuity moving to Alert Level 3, effective from 1 June 2020, LUDM has put in place the electronic submission of applications process via dedicated emails indicated below:
Land Use Applications: LandUseApplications@joburg.org.za
Legal Admin Applications: LegalAdminApplications@joburg.org.za
Building Development Management Services
There will be a service desk, which will be manned by one administration official at a time, working on a rotational basis with other staff members. The official will record all queries, relay them to the relevant Unit of the Directorate for service provision. Other administration staff will be available at the back office to provide administrative support on a rotational basis.
All new building applications submissions will be electronic and a dedicated email address has been set up: (Email address: BuildingApplications@joburg.org.za) Building Application queries will be telephonic or via email (Tel: 011 407-6058/85). Provision has been made at the Metro Link for physical interaction with members of the public, although this is not encouraged.
A drop-off box will be provided only for the re-submission of applications previously pended, and for bulk building application submissions for, e.g.: schools, hospitals, etc. Please call using the above numbers for clarity on submissions to be made at the drop-off box. Access to the Metro Link will be limited to a certain number of people at a time.
Plans Examiners will be available to process building applications at the Metro building. Interaction with the public is discouraged and, in the event, queries cannot be resolved telephonically or via email, provision has been made at the Metro Link where limited interaction can occur via an appointment.
Historical/archived building plans will be available to the public, but only through appointment by email or telephone (Email address: KgolokoPatrickK@joburg.org.za and Tel: 011 407-6034/ 083 702 7689) and request a copy of a plan, then set an appointment for collection. The plan will then be collected at the Metro Link.
All Regional Offices will have limited entry by members of the public. All queries, complaints will be via the dedicated complaints email address (Email Address: complaintsPLE@joburg.org.za) under the Law Enforcement Unit of the Department or to the Director BDMs office. The relevant complaints will then be forwarded to the relevant regional office for processing. Members of the public will be required to use emails and/ or telephone for queries, complaints and requesting of Building Inspections.
Outdoor advertising queries will be directly with the Outdoor Advertising Unit via email and telephonically (Email Address: complaintsPLE@joburg.org.za). Submission of any documents will only be via email (Email Address: SamuelMalu@joburg.org.za and Tel: 011 407-6782/083 702 4985) to the Assistant Director Outdoor Advertising.
Members of the public must please note that there may be delays in service provision due to compliance with COVID-19 precautions in some cases, but the directorate will strive to ensure limited delays in providing services.
Services Provided During Lockdown
Throughout the Lockdown Alert Level 5 and 4, the Department has been actively involved in providing all support services to the essential services performed by public works, engineering and housing (Temporary Emergency Accommodation) projects and has been giving approvals and the necessary inputs where required.
Other services the Department provided throughout the lockdown and continue to provide, are property related processes aimed at enabling billing. Requests continued through the communication channels listed below:
• All CGIS customer queries: cgiscrm@joburg.org.za
• Mapping website support: ims@joburg.org.za
• Digital data and mapping: cgisprojects@joburg.org.za
• For Surveyor General plans / diagrams: go to http://csg.dla.gov.za or email sgdatagp@dldlr.gov.za
Property information is accessible and still is obtained from the Online maps on Jozinet and on eServices at http://eservices.joburg.org.za. Clients are required to register as an eServices client in order to access the Online Maps website. Online Maps website support was/and still is available via roxannep@joburg.org.za and ims@joburg.org.za.
Media enquiries
Poppy Louw
Stakeholder Manager: MMC for Development Planning
poppyl@joburg.org.za
081 235 4999
Andile Masuku
Deputy Director: Stakeholder Management and Communications
073 066 7944
