Development Planning launches the City of Joburg Construction Permit Management System
29 October 2021

The City of Johannesburg Department of Development Planning has unveiled its new web-based construction permit system in a soft launch, held today.

Designed specifically for building permit purposes, the Construction Permit Management System, which will be piloted until 08 November 2021, is intended to modernise and streamline the current Site Development and Building Plan permit system.

Applicants – namely professionals who are registered with the South African Council for the Architectural Profession (SACAP) – will now be able to submit their building plans electronically; a significant move from paper-based applications, manual processing and capturing.

The implementation of the online application system seeks to enhance the operational efficiency and good governance of Development Planning, to improve on its service delivery mandates and further aligns with the City of Joburg’s Smart City programme.

This comes hot on the heels of the recently launched eJoburg – the City’s new digital billing and payment platform that allows residents to track their monthly municipal bill, check consumption and soon be able to upload meter readings.

All these initiatives fall in line with the City’s long-term vision, the Growth and Development Strategy 2040 and the Integrated Development Plan vision, which is to create a culture of excellence and continuous improvement, through the implementation of a customer-centric, optimised digital construction permitting process that reduces turnaround times whilst mitigating related risk.

An open-source system that has been used in 14 other international jurisdictions, the Construction Permit Management System is part of an initiative by the National Government on the Ease of Doing Business programme, with Johannesburg as the first South African city to pilot.

The programme is a collaborative effort with the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), InvestSA, National Treasury and the national Department of Trade, Industry and Competition.