Nkwinti concerned about valuation

Johannesburg - There is a serious problem with the property valuation system in South Africa, Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti said in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

"We think there is something drastically wrong with valuation methods in South Africa," he told delegates at the Food and Allied Workers' Union national congress.

The office of the valuer general, proposed in the recently released green paper on land reform, was intended to fix this problem.

Nkwinti said inflated valuations did not go into the pocket of the seller.

"It goes somewhere between the buyer and the seller - estate agents, fraudsters."

Valuers were not taking all determinants for valuation into account, he said.

"The most junior staff are handling valuations; (they) are dealing with lawyers, hardcore lawyers who want money," she said.