Johannesburg’s hope for growth and investment is being strangled by administrative failure. Developments across the City are being delayed or abandoned because the City’s digital planning systems have become unreliable – crippling approvals, inspections, and investor confidence.
This week, the Democratic Alliance (DA) visited a site in Linksfield North that has been stalled for over a year – a symptom of a wider crisis affecting every region of the City.
The GIS (Geo-Informatics System) portal, which underpins mapping and zoning data, has been unusable for months. The CPMS (Construction Permit Management System), used to process building-plan applications and track approvals, goes down repeatedly, often for days at a time. When these systems fail, plan assessments stop, compliance inspections can’t be logged, and developers are left in limbo.
Yet, while the City’s economic engine grinds to a halt, the acting mayor – who is also the ANC MMC for Development Planning – is spending her time doing street-sweeping photo-ops in Alexandra instead of fixing her department’s operational collapse.
Johannesburg cannot grow when the very systems meant to support development are collapsing. Every stalled plan represents lost jobs, lost revenue, and lost faith in the City’s ability to function.
The DA calls on the acting mayor and Development Planning Department to:
- Stabilise and maintain the GIS and CPMS systems with permanent technical oversight and full-time IT support.
- Establish a dedicated “Developer Desk” within the Development Planning Department to assist applicants affected by excessive delays and to help catch up on backlogged approvals.
- Implement internal performance tracking to ensure that once these systems are restored, delays are systematically reduced.
Johannesburg needs leadership that can keep its core functions running — not one that prioritises optics over operations. The City’s developers, investors, and residents deserve competence, not chaos.
By Cllr Daniel Schay – DA Shadow MMC for Development Planning
