Estate Agency Affairs Board’s proposed resolution is blatant racism
AfriForum wrote a letter to Lindiwe Sisulu, the minister of human settlements, and the Estate Agency Affairs Board, demanding the scrapping of the board’s proposed resolution to unfairly benefit “previously disadvantaged individuals”.
During a presentation about complying with property law, the board proposed the implementation of a resolution “to fulfil its mandate from the minister of human settlements to transform the property industry”. The resolution entails that “previously disadvantaged” estate agents can apply for:
- Exemption of payments for fidelity fund certificates, continuing professional development (CPD) and fines;
- Exemption of compliance with CPD requirements;
- Exemption of compliance with educational qualifications; and
- Exemption of the submission of audit reports for trust accounts.
According to the proposed resolution, different rules should apply to different groups, depending on their skin colour. It is unacceptable that some people will in effect be exempt from being accountable, while others are forced to comply to certain standards.
The implementation of this resolution will create a dangerous precedent for other professional bodies. Control measures such as these exist precisely to protect the public and to avoid them from being exploited. It doesn’t make any sense that some people would be exempt from these measures. On the contrary, it is a grave injustice.
