Edendale is a large and populous area situated to the north west of Pietermaritzburg, established as a segregated township by the apartheid government. Several thousand residential even were surveyed, starting in the early 1960s, although previous forms of land tenure have existed since the late 1800s. Due to poor control mechanisms and the chaotic nature of the apartheid government’s Deeds Registry and cadastral system, several forms of overlapping title have been granted over the course of the development, leading to multiple issues in administration and management of the land in the present day. GeoAfrika Surveys was tasked with developing a strategic response to this, clarifying land ownership and establishing systems to consolidate information going forward.

Daimler (Mercedes-Benz) South Africa are currently undertaking significant extensions and upgrades to their plant in East London. A number of the assembly and workshop warehouses are being extended during this programme, some of which date back to as far as the 1950s and contain wooden elements in the structural design. Over the years, there have been numerous upgrades and installations within the warehouses, some documented on CAD drawings and some undocumented. Daimler required a 3D BIM (Building Information Model) for two of their warehouses (totalling 75,000sqm) detailing all the major architectural, structural and MEP components of the buildings.

Palm Lakes is a premium lifestyle development situated on the North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal. The estate comprises of residential, intermediate residential, commercial, mixed use, hotel and education sites, as well as various community facilities. It houses numerous sectional title developments, and has been well received by local and national buyers.

The South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) network comprises of nearly 22,691km of road infrastructure. This equates to an estimated 500 million hectares of land that requires administration, management and survey.

The provision of good quality housing and living conditions is a government priority for all citizens of South Africa. A significant proportion of those who do own homes in the country, however, do not hold title deeds. This can be attributed to a number of factors, including the complexity of systems, poor beneficiary data keeping, housing developments that do not comply with local planning regulations, and appointment of incapable service providers. Additionally, low-income individuals often do not follow the formal registration process at all because of the expense involved and the fact that many dwellings have been informally “subdivided” or extended over time, which would invalidate the registration.

As a result of these issues, a large number of government housing developments constructed since 1994 operate and trade on an informal basis. It is in this context that in November 2018 the World Bank appointed GeoAfrika to undertake a project with the following mandate:

• To establish a simpler and more affordable system for registering transactions for low-income areas.
• To undertake a mass systematic registration program in order to issue the first deeds to owners in two pilot project regions of Ilembe.

Established tertiary educational institutions often occupy large tracts of land due to the number of facilities they encompass. The growth in their physical footprint is often fairly ad hoc, however, responding more to new demands on resources than a long-term strategic plan. As a result, land is sometimes acquired or re-allocated for these institutions that was previously planned for other land usage. The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) operates five campuses across the province of KwaZulu-Natal, and its growth over the years has resulted in an over-large property holding, made up of a number of small pieces of land. This has led to significant cost inefficiencies from a property rating and property sub-leasing perspective. To help remedy this, GeoAfrika was appointed as a subcontractor to the property valuation team to undertake the rationalisation of the UKZN land assembly across all five campuses.

The construction of improved road and highway infrastructure is a complex task. Civil engineering designers need as much information as possible to ensure that they plan new infrastructure that meets the specifications required by the client, while also providing detailed information to the contractor so upgrades can be completed within budget and on time.

The N3 highway from Durban to Pietermaritzburg is currently undergoing significant design upgrades in preparation for construction starting in 2020. While the highway corridor has been extensively surveyed over the last five years, there have also been numerous new services laid underground across and within the road reserve. GeoAfrika Surveys have undertaken a detailed audit of these underground services to ensure that an up to date record of their locations is provided to contractors prior to construction. This will reduce the risk of services being impeded during construction, preventing significant knock on effects to the project budget and timeframes.