Technology systems for land administration: a case study of South Africa

Abstract

Both private and public sector businesses are aware of the need to deploy information and communications technologies to improve their internal processes as well as to optimise external linkages. For public sector organisations, there is even the greater need to promptly capture, store, transmit, and retrieve information in the electronic domain, particularly because of the large volumes of vagarious data that legislatively must be recorded. This article describes an empirical study on e-conveyancing, that is, business processes legally required to transfer landed property from one owner to another. The survey of respondents focused on the identification of types of data and information sourced from the various private firms and public sector agencies involved in conveyancing processes. The paper surmises that conveyancing is tantamount to data and information supply chain linkages between stakeholders. The study explores issues and challenges for automation of information and communication systems for land administration.