DURBAN - THE eThekwini Municipality wants to tighten a by-law related to property transfers in order to deal with “crooked conveyancers and sellers” who are using fraudulent revenue clearance certificates when properties are being sold.
Revenue clearance certificates are prescribed documents issued when a property is being sold to confirm that there is no money owed to the municipality for rates and services. All municipal bills must be paid up by the seller before the property can be transferred into the buyer’s name.
However the municipality said it has been incurring financial losses because of the use of fraudulent certificates purporting to be from the city. These fraudulent certificates showed no amounts being owed to the municipality and the fraud was only picked up once the property transfer had taken effect.
Therefore the city is taking steps, which is detailed in the proposed city’s Credit Control and Debt Collection amendment by-law, to curb the fraudulent activity.
The amendment is out comment until August 31.
The by-law amendment seeks to give the municipality the power to impose certain duties on a conveyancer and other people involved in the revenue clearance certificate process and to provide for processes for the “combating of improper practices relating to Revenue Clearance Certificates”.
Some conveyancers said they have heard of such fraud in the past and said to carry it out there needed to be collusion involving a municipal official, a conveyancer and a seller.
The amendment also aims to provide for consequences where a person has engaged in improper practice or conduct, and the establishment of a blacklisting committee to consider applications for the blacklisting of any person involved in an improper practice.
It states that the onus would rest on the conveyancer to ensure that the revenue clearance certificate corresponds with the seller’s billing statements and that payments of outstanding bills are made before the conveyancing documents are lodged with the Deeds Office.
“A conveyancer who is tasked with lodging conveyancing documents in the Deeds Office and who is furnished with a Revenue Clearance Certificate by a person other than a legal practitioner, must validate independently the information contained on such Revenue Clearance Certificate,” it says.
It also mandates that a conveyancer must keep a copy of the Revenue Clearance Certificate, as forwarded to the Deeds Office, for a period of three years, calculated from the date of transfer of a property.
Regarding the establishing of the Revenue Management Blacklisting Committee, the amendment states that the grounds for blacklisting any person involved in an improper practice may include engaging directly or indirectly for public in any improper practice.
The effects of blacklisting may include disallowing a blacklisted person from making an application for, or receiving, a Revenue Clearance Certificate either manually or using the municipality’s on-line platform, for a specified period determined in the policy.
The document also asks the chief financial officer to report to the police where there is evidence of improper conduct.
IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi said such steps taken by the municipality, including the establishment of a committee, were essential and would bring discipline and honesty when people were dealing with the municipality.
“We have always said that until there are severe consequences for behaving improperly, people will continue to behave improperly. Take the companies that are contracted to do municipal work, they can abandon a site and leave the work incomplete because they know that nothing will happen to them,” he said.
DA councillor Warren Burne, who is also a conveyancer, said the amendment makes the conveyancer responsible for the revenue clearance certificate.
“From what I understand, the danger is that some people are encouraging municipal officials to hide the debt that the seller is owing so that the revenue clearance certificate could be issued,” he said.
He said he had heard of such crimes taking place years ago and believed that people who engaged in such should be caught and punished.
Burne said if there were fraudulent certificates being issued with the collusion of municipal staff, the municipality should go after these employees and punish them.
He said the finance committee would discuss the amendment, however he added that he felt the amendment was heavy handed and was like using a sledgehammer to drive a pedal pin.
“If the aim of the amendment is to deal with people out there that are printing fraudulent documents, that is just fraud, and the amendment will not stop those people from generating fraudulent documents.”
EThekwini Municipality spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said the by-law amendment was necessary after the municipality became aware of the falsifying of revenue clearance certificates.
He said the illegal transfer of properties using revenue clearance certificates that were not issued by the municipality caused financial losses to the city, especially if the seller/previous owner cannot be found.
“The municipality only finds out about these certificates when the transfer documents are requested from the Deeds Office and it is realised that the certificate was not issued by the municipality. The city then reports the matter to the authorities.”
Mayisela said the City Integrity and Investigations Unit has also conducted several investigations and some of the cases have been reported to the SAPS.
ONCE again the health of former president Jacob Zuma took centre stage at the Pietermaritzburg High Court with the National Prosecuting Authority questioning a doctor’s note from the military health services.
The last time Zuma’s health became a subject of a court dispute was in February last year when he was in Cuba undergoing medical treatment.
Yesterday Zuma was supposed to be in the high court with his lawyers to argue why State advocate Billy Downer SC should not lead his prosecution for alleged corruption during the arms deal.
But Zuma could not make it as he was still in the care of military health services in hospital in Gauteng, where he was booked in on Friday.
His lawyers, led by advocate Dali Mpofu SC, told Judge Piet Koen that Zuma was still not well and asked for a postponement until he is fit to come to court.
However, advocate Wim Trengove SC, for the State, raised concerns about the medical practitioner’s letter submitted, detailing Zuma’s condition, arguing that the report was vague and did not detail exactly what Zuma’s health condition and illness were.
Mpofu pushed back on Trengove’s accusations, saying that the medical condition details were private.
The medical note that was being debated in the court was issued by the military health services.
The note said Zuma’s several legal woes delayed his treatment for a traumatic injury he suffered in November last year.
In the note sent on August 8 to the head of the Estcourt prison in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands where Zuma is serving his 15-month sentence for contempt of court, Brigadier General Dr Mcebisi Zukile Mdutywa from the military health services said the extent of the injuries to the former president posed a risk to his life.
“He is undergoing extensive medical evaluation and care as a result of his condition that needed an emergency medical procedure that has been delayed for 18 months due to compounding legal matters and recent incarceration and cannot be delayed any further as it carries a significant risk to his life,” Mdutywa said in the report.
Judge Koen in his order ruled that the State may appoint a separate medical doctor to assess Zuma and his fitness to come to court and stand trial.
“The matter is postponed to September 9 and 10.
“The medical report in respect of Zuma is to be delivered by not later than August 20.
“It is directed that the State may appoint a medical practitioner of its choice to examine Zuma, and if necessary to give evidence as to his fitness to attend court and stand trial,” Judge Koen ruled.
Some of the former president’s supporters were outside court, despite the last-hour announcement that, due to medical issues, Zuma would not be physically in Pietermaritzburg.
Among the supporters spotted outside court was Inkosi Daliwonga, of the Abathembu tribal authority in Mqanduli in the Eastern Cape.
Daliwonga, who has always attended Zuma’s court matters, said he stood by the former president as he believed that he was innocent until proven guilty, adding that in African communities, one did not forsake a “fellow brother” during difficult times.
THE MERCURY