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.