The Department of Development Planning is happy to confirm that since adopting measures to deal with delays in the Construction Permit Management System (CPMS), it has cleared the backlog of 1 067 building plan applications in the system. 

From 05 September 2022 to 16 September 2022, the Department processed a total of 1 678 applications through the CPMS. Also, during these two weeks, a total of 103 low-cost housing applications were also manually processed and approved. 

Since August 2022, the Department has experienced technical problems with the CPMS. The problem being that applicants were unable to download signed copies of building plan applications that were approved on CPMS. This resulted in a backlog of applications at decision making stage. 

To deal with this issue, the Department has encouraged all applicants whose building applications were approved on the CPMS but were unable to download the signed copies due to the technical problems to bring two sets of copies of the plans submitted and approved on CPMS to the City of Johannesburg. The hard copies will then be verified against the applications submitted on the CPMS, signed and be ready for collection. 

The above arrangement will continue until 30 September 2022, with all hard copies being signed off at the Metrolink Building, located at 158 Loveday Street, Braamfontein. 

The operating hours are as follows: 

Due to the current loadshedding, the Department cautions applicants that some of the stamped approved hard copies may not be available the same day but can be collected the next day. The closing time of 19h00 will be adjusted to 17h30 depending on the applicable loadshedding schedule. 

The MMC for Development Planning, Cllr Belinda Echeozonjoku, has commended the hard work of the staff in the Department as well as the patience of the industry stakeholders with the system, reiterating the City’s Mayoral priorities of being a ‘smart’ and ‘business friendly’ city.