The KwaZulu-Natal Government is worried about a far-reaching proposal that would force people on the coast to surrender land ownership rights when the sea shifts its boundaries, says a report in The Mercury. If the proposal becomes law, landowners would also be committing an offence if they attempted to build walls and other structures to protect their homes and land being damaged or swallowed up by the sea.

According to the Integrated Coastal Management Bill, approved recently by the Cabinet, private landowners and the government will be forced to relinquish their property ownership rights, if the high-weather mark moves inland as a result of sea erosion, sea level rise or other natural causes, But, in the wake of severe erosion to private and municipal property along several parts of the NZN coastline after the major sea storm of March 19, Agriculture and Environmental Affairs MEC Mtholephi Mthimkhulu is scheduled to conduct an emergency airborne inspection of the coast line later this week.

Nevertheless, Section 14 of the Bill specifies that if sand builds up above the high-water mark, then this newly created land would become part of the publicly owned seashore. Conversely, if the high-water mark moves inland because of natural erosion of the coast or sea level rise, the Bill states that the owners of the coastal land will lose ownership ‘of any portion of that land that become situated below the high-water mark’.

Legalbrief 07-08-2007