DA fights deeds office race rule - Mlindi Nhanha
Key topics
New rule requires race and gender disclosure for property transfers
DA says rule violates privacy and lacks legal justification
Legal challenge planned against enforced racial declarations
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By Mlindi Nhanha MP*
Deeds Offices around the Country are starting to implement a new rule that all persons transferring property must declare their race and gender in writing, or face their transfer being thrown out of the Deeds Office.
The Democratic Alliance holds this to be contrary to the spirit of the Constitution and our non-racial democratic order. The creation of this rule appears to have been done outside of the scope allowed in law. The insistence on providing racial classification in writing without the option to opt-out, may constitute an infringement on the right to privacy.
The DA demands that Minister Nyhontso withdraw the regulations and informs Registrars of Deeds at all Deeds Offices around South Africa to immediately suspend the implementation of this rule, contained in the Chief Registrar’s Circular 3 of 2025 and published in the Government Gazette 52219 of 5 March 2025.
The DA will also seek legal advice on the lawfulness of this rule being enforced by the Deeds Office, with the intention of challenging this new Regulation.
Our demand is urgent: In Deeds Offices across the Country this week Deeds of Transfer are being thrown out, or examiners notes are being raised, forcing transferring parties to declare their racial classification in writing, when they are unwilling to do so and should be under no legal compulsion to do so.
Many persons involved in property transfers this week are extremely worried that this information is going to be used against them, either to racially profile their transfer, or to enforce land expropriation on the basis of the declared race of the property owner.
To make it worse, the race and gender of transferring parties adds nothing to the property transfer process. The information that Deeds Offices need to effect these transfers should be strictly limited to information necessary to obtain the identity of the transferring parties.
Their race and gender have nothing to do with it.
Our privacy laws allow limitations to the right to privacy, but this can only be done if it is reasonable and justifiable to do so – but enforcing a racial declaration in a property transfer is neither reasonable nor justifiable for the following reasons:
In a context such as the census, persons are provided with an option not to partake in disclosing their personal information, which is the precedent for government statistics gathering,
Race and gender are not required facts to effect a transfer or establish identity,
There is no legal definition for race in South Africa, and no way to legally determine racial classifications, and
The justification which the Regulations provide (being “land audit purposes”) can never be achieved by recording data from land transfers, which are an ongoing and ever-changing state, and will never give a complete picture.
The DA demands an answer and action from Minister Nyhontso and will push for urgent action.
The DA will provide further updates after receiving legal advice.
*Mlindi Nhanha MP – DA Spokesperson on Land Reform & Rural Development