Briefing 2026/01JohannesburgPlanning law
The Johannesburg Municipal Planning By-law: What Changed and What Applies Now
Since 3 April 2024, new land development applications have been made under the City of Johannesburg Municipal Planning By-law, 2016, as amended in 2023. What the amendments changed, who they affect, and what the text leaves unresolved.
The short version
- Amended, not replaced. Council approved amendments to the 2016 By-law on 31 October 2023, and the amended text has applied since it was published on 3 April 2024. Open By-laws, which covers amendments published up to 18 September 2026, records no later amendment.
- Stronger enforcement. The City’s written direction is now a contravention notice, and the By-law states that an unlawful use must stop until the necessary approvals are obtained and that lodging an application does not change that.
- Deadlines moved. Appeals against decisions run 28 days from the date the notification is dispatched, not received, and the period between 15 December and 5 January is excluded when calculating periods of days the By-law prescribes.
- Stricter notices and objections. Rezoning notices wait for the City’s reference number, bodies corporate receive neighbour letters, and objections to rezoning and township establishment applications must also be sent to the applicant.
- Contributions and open space. Engineering services contributions are now called development contributions, though some sections keep the old name. Where residential density rises, open space can now be required as land on consent uses, rezonings and subdivisions of erven in approved townships, not only in township establishment.
- Unchanged. The types of application, the timeframes in section 57 and the procedure for requesting reasons read as they did in 2016, although periods counted in days are now subject to the holiday exclusion.
1. Where the By-law stands in 2026
One by-law, three names
The same instrument is cited in three main ways. The notice published on 3 April 2024 calls it the City of Johannesburg Municipal Planning By-Law, 2016, As Amended, 2023.1 Open By-laws, a free online database of by-laws, lists the amended text as the Municipal Planning By-law, 2024, named for the year of publication.2 The 2016 text calls itself the City of Johannesburg: Municipal Planning By-Law, 2016, and documents written before April 2024 usually cite it that way.3
All three are one by-law. The amended text itself defines “this By-law” as the City of Johannesburg Municipal Planning By-law, 2016 (s 1). The 2016 text was amended, not repealed, and its section numbers were kept: section 21 is the rezoning section whichever name is used. The City’s notice promulgating its amended Land Use Scheme cites it as the City of Johannesburg Municipal Planning By-Law 2016, as amended 2023.4 We follow the City and cite it as the City of Johannesburg Municipal Planning By-law, 2016, as amended in 2023. Section 70 still carries the 2016 short title and commencement clause; the amendments took effect under the publication notice.1
No amendment recorded since April 2024
Open By-laws, whose record is stated to include amendments published up to 18 September 2026, shows no amendment after 3 April 2024.2 Applications lodged since 3 April 2024 are made under the amended text. For applications already in the system, the City allowed a transition period that ended on 3 May 2024.5
A new Land Use Scheme alongside it
The By-law governs how applications are made, advertised, decided and appealed. What land may be used for is set by the Land Use Scheme, and the scheme changed on 1 July 2026, when the City of Johannesburg Land Use Scheme, 2018, as amended 2025, came into operation under Local Authority Promulgation Notice 390 of 2026.4 The two are read together. The scheme’s changes are outside the scope of this Briefing.
2. What changed
The amendments kept the architecture of the 2016 By-law: the same 70 sections, types of application and decision-making structure. By our count, 26 sections changed, most of them only in detail, along with both Schedules. Three sets of changes reach almost everyone who deals with the City on land use; the rest are summarised in Table 1.
Enforcement: an application is not a shield
Under the 2016 text the City could direct a person in writing to stop, remove or regularise an unlawful use or building work, within a period the direction had to state. Section 62 now calls that direction a contravention notice and provides that failure to comply “shall lead to enforcement of section 63(6)”, which allows the City to apply to court for an interdict or for a demolition order without compensation. It also adds a provision aimed at a common assumption:1
“Illegal activities and operation shall cease until such a time that the necessary approvals have been obtained. Submission of applications does not mean the illegal activity/building shall continue or remain.”
Section 63 now lists what a law enforcement officer may do when checking compliance, including questioning people who may have relevant information, requiring and copying records, taking samples, seizing items that may serve as evidence, and taking photographs and recordings. When carrying out a court order or enforcement action, an officer may use such force as is reasonably necessary to overcome resistance, including breaking a door or window after demanding entry and delivering a notice, and may ask the South African Police Service or the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department for help in enforcing a court order. The By-law declares the City exempt from liability for resulting damage. A private dwelling may still be inspected only after reasonable notice and with consent, or under a warrant.
Deadlines: dispatch and the holiday exclusion
The 28 days for an internal appeal now run from the date the notification of a decision is dispatched, not the date it is received (s 49(1)). Dispatch now also starts two other periods: an applicant’s 14 days to reply to objections on a building line relaxation (s 20(3)), and neighbours’ 28 days to object to the subdivision of a Residential 1 erf in an approved township (s 33(2)). A late appeal is invalid (s 49(4)), so a notification that arrives late leaves less time, not more.
The period between 15 December and 5 January is now excluded when calculating periods of days the By-law prescribes (s 1, after the definition of “day”). Not every period moved to dispatch: reasons must still be requested within 28 days of receiving notice of the decision (ss 15(3) and 59), and the 28 days for an appeal against a contribution levied by a separate letter run from receipt of that letter (s 49(1)).
Notices and objections
A rezoning may be advertised only after the City has issued its registration reference number (s 21(2)(a)), and consent use notices and building line letters must show the application reference number (ss 19 and 20). Where an adjoining property, or one across the street, is a sectional title development, the neighbour letter goes to its body corporate (ss 19, 21 and 26).
Objections to rezoning, township establishment and some other applications must now be sent to the applicant as well as the City, as was already the rule for consent uses, building line relaxations and Residential 1 subdivisions. Notices and neighbour letters for consent use, building line, rezoning, township establishment and Residential 1 subdivision applications must now also tell objectors to comply with section 68. That section is unchanged: an objection must state the right, interest or legitimate expectation it protects and the objector’s full contact details, or it may be disregarded as invalid. Section 68 also provides that councillors may object only in their personal capacity, not as ward councillors on behalf of others.
Other changes, section by section
| Topic | Provisions | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| Tribunal and hearings | ss 14, 15 and 58 | Members of the Municipal Planning Tribunal may include appointees of municipal-owned entities. The record of proceedings and decisions must be made available within 14 days of a request. Parties may appear in person or on a platform the City determines. |
| Consent use | ss 19(7) and 69 | An approval may now include a condition allowing the consent to be amended, not only withdrawn, for non-compliance with its conditions or a change of circumstances. Open space may be required as land, not only paid for, where density rises, and excision from the agricultural holdings register may be a condition. |
| Rezoning | ss 22 and 24 | An approval may be abandoned in part. The 24-month bar on a further application now follows a refusal instead of an approval, and the exception for minor amendments has gone. |
| Contributions after a rezoning | s 25 | A contribution for engineering services may now be levied where the amendment scheme will have a greater impact on those services; the 2016 test was whether they would need to be enhanced or improved. Within 90 days from the date of the contribution letter, an owner may ask the City to repeal or further amend the amendment scheme to avoid the contribution; a further amendment previously needed a new application under section 21. Section 25 no longer mentions reducing the contribution. The letter must now state how an unpaid amount will escalate. See “What we don’t yet know”, below. |
| Development contributions | ss 1, 46 and 47 | The s 1 definition of an engineering services contribution now uses the name development contribution, although some sections, including ss 28(16), 29(1)(e) and 49(1)(c), still refer to engineering services contributions. Section 47 now expressly extends development contributions to land development applications other than townships. Transport is now listed as an engineering service, and owners are now responsible for the provision, installation and cost of link engineering services (s 46(5)): external services that connect an internal engineering service to a bulk engineering service “up to 100 metres”, including the land required (s 1). |
| Open space | ss 1, 19, 22 and 33; Sch 2 | The definition now covers urban greening, conservation, climate adaptation and ecological functions. The formula for paying instead of providing land has been revised. |
| Inclusionary housing | s 48(7) | An inclusionary housing contribution may now be levied on other applications that trigger the City’s inclusionary housing policy, not only on township establishment applications. |
| Townships | ss 26 and 28 | Uses granted under clause 24 of the 2018 Land Use Scheme no longer require township establishment. The periods to lodge with the Surveyor-General and the Registrar rise from 12 to 24 months, and the Surveyor-General period now runs from the date of approval, not the date of the notice of approval. Each period may be extended by up to 36 months; the 2016 limit was 24 months, with no further extension. Further extensions are possible only in exceptional circumstances and in line with the City’s internal guidelines, and must fall “within 10 years of the entire life of the township application” (s 28(6) and (13)). |
| Subdivisions | ss 33 and 35 | The periods to lodge and register after approval rise from 12 to 24 months, with extensions of up to a further 24 months. |
| Restrictive conditions | s 41 | An application to remove, amend or suspend a restrictive condition may now be submitted at the same time as a township establishment application, as it already could be with consent use, building line, rezoning and subdivision applications. |
| Application documents | Sch 1 | Applications must now include more environmental information, depending on the site: trees, watercourses, certified flood lines, buffers, wetland and ecological studies, dolomite stability and environmental authorisations. A new item covers confirmation of sectional title schemes. |
Source: Glensburg Town Planners, comparing the 2016 text with the amended text published on 3 April 2024.1, 3
What did not change
The types of application (s 4), who decides which applications (ss 16 and 18), the statutory timeframes (s 57), the procedure for requesting reasons (s 59), the transitional provisions (s 65) and the penalties (s 62(7) and (8)) read as they did in 2016, although periods counted in days are now subject to the holiday exclusion.
3. Who is affected
- Owners using land or a building without approval, including student communes, guesthouses and offices in houses: the contravention notice regime applies, and lodging an application does not let the use continue.
- Applicants for rezoning, consent use, subdivision and township establishment: the new notice sequence, letters to bodies corporate, development contributions, open space requirements and longer periods after approval.
- Neighbours, residents’ associations and bodies corporate: bodies corporate now receive neighbour letters, notices point objectors to section 68, and objections to rezoning and township establishment applications must also be sent to the applicant.
- Anyone who may want to appeal: the 28 days may be running before the notification arrives.
- Buyers, sellers and conveyancers: unpaid contributions can still block the transfer of township erven and subdivided portions (ss 29 and 37) and the approval of building plans after a rezoning (s 25(7)), and an unapproved building or use does not become lawful when the property changes hands.
- Owners of farm portions and agricultural holdings: some uses no longer require township establishment.
4. What to do now
- Cite the amended text. Applications, objections and appeals should refer to the By-law as amended. Older documents that cite the 2016 By-law use the same section numbers, but check whether the wording they rely on has changed.
- Count from dispatch. Work out an appeal deadline from the date the notification of the decision was dispatched. The holiday exclusion applies only to periods of days the By-law prescribes, not to other laws or court rules. Where the period runs over the December holidays, do not wait for the last possible day, because the text leaves some points unsettled (see “What we don’t yet know”).
- Do not rely on an application for protection. If you have received a contravention notice, comply within the period it states: failing to comply is a further offence, and the By-law states that lodging an application does not allow the use to continue. Take advice before that period ends.
- Budget for contributions early. Applications that add density may attract development contributions and a requirement to provide open space land or pay instead. The amounts depend on the application and the City’s current policies, so they belong in the feasibility stage.
- Make objections valid. State the right, interest or legitimate expectation the objection protects, give full contact details, and send it to both the City and the applicant within the period in the notice or letter. For the subdivision of a Residential 1 erf, the 28 days run from the date the letter was dispatched.
What this Briefing does not do. It does not tell you whether your property needs an application, which one, or what it will cost in contributions. Those answers depend on the zoning, the title deed, the site and the City’s current practice, and they are what a first consultation is for.
5. What we don’t yet know
The amended text leaves several questions open. We will record the answers here as they are settled.
- Approvals granted before 3 April 2024. The By-law does not say whether the new 24-month lodgement periods apply to approvals granted before the amendments took effect, and the transitional provisions in section 65 were not updated.
- The holiday exclusion. The By-law excludes the period “between 15 December and 5 January” from prescribed days. It does not say whether those two dates are themselves excluded, or whether periods expressed in months are affected.
- Appeals against contributions set in a decision. Under section 49(1), the 28 days for an appeal against a decision run from dispatch, and for an appeal against a contribution from receipt of the notification that levies it. Where the contribution is a condition of the decision itself, as it can be for a consent use or a subdivision, the text does not say which applies.
- The 24-month bar after a refusal. Section 24 still counts the period “from the date of coming into operation of the scheme”, wording written for an approval. A refusal brings no scheme into operation, so the text does not say when the 24 months start.
- Avoiding a contribution by further amendment. Section 25(3) now allows an owner to ask the City to repeal or further amend the amendment scheme to avoid a contribution, but section 25(5) still ends the obligation to pay only when the City gives notice of a repeal. The By-law does not say what happens to the contribution if the scheme is further amended instead.
- The open space formula. Schedule 2 introduces terms it does not separately define and values land by reference to undeveloped Residential 1 land “within the vicinity of the area”. How the City will apply these is not stated.
- Cross-references to the scheme. The By-law refers to clauses of the 2018 Land Use Scheme by number, and the scheme was amended with effect from 1 July 2026. Some references no longer match: the By-law defines open space by the categories in clause 49 of the scheme, but in the amended scheme clause 49 deals with heritage, and the scheme’s own definitions point to open space categories in clause 50. Check each cross-reference against the amended scheme before relying on it.1, 4
- Internal guidelines. Township extensions beyond the stated periods depend on the City’s internal guidelines, which are not part of the By-law.
6. Questions clients ask
Is the 2016 Johannesburg Municipal Planning By-law still in force?
Yes, as amended. The City amended the 2016 By-law rather than replacing it. The amended text, approved by Council on 31 October 2023 and published as Local Authority Notice 447 of 2024, has applied since 3 April 2024. Open By-laws, which covers amendments published up to 18 September 2026, records no later amendment.
What is the Municipal Planning By-law, 2024?
It is the title Open By-laws gives to the amended text of the City of Johannesburg Municipal Planning By-law, 2016; the year in the title is when the amended text was published. It is not a separate by-law. The publication notice in the Provincial Gazette calls it the City of Johannesburg Municipal Planning By-Law, 2016, As Amended, 2023, and its short title in section 70 is unchanged.
Does lodging a rezoning or consent use application stop a contravention notice in Johannesburg?
No. Section 62 of the amended By-law says that illegal activities must stop until the necessary approvals have been obtained, and that submitting an application does not mean the activity or building may continue or remain. Failing to comply with a contravention notice is an offence, and the City may apply to court for an interdict or a demolition order.
How long do I have to appeal a planning decision in Johannesburg?
You have 28 days from the date on which the notification of the decision was dispatched, not the date you received it (section 49(1)). For an appeal against a contribution levied by a separate letter, the 28 days run instead from the date you receive that letter; where the contribution is a condition of the decision itself, work from the dispatch date to be safe. The period between 15 December and 5 January is excluded from the count. An appeal that is late, or that does not otherwise comply with section 49, is invalid.
Did the amended By-law make planning applications faster?
One route is shorter: certain uses on farm portions and agricultural holdings no longer require township establishment. The timeframes in section 57 read as they did in 2016, although periods counted in days now exclude the period between 15 December and 5 January. In our experience an unopposed rezoning takes six to nine months from appointment to decision, and an opposed matter six to twelve months.
Speak to a Planner
If a contravention notice, a decision or a contribution letter has arrived, or you are preparing an application under the amended By-law, speak to us before the next deadline. Glensburg Town Planners is a town planning and architecture practice at 35 Fricker Road, Illovo, Johannesburg. We prepare land development applications across the Gauteng City-Region and represent applicants at Municipal Planning Tribunal hearings and on appeal.
We will tell you plainly if a proposal is unlikely to succeed. We do not promise outcomes or timeframes. The initial consultation is free and we respond within one working day.
- Telephone
- +27 10 442 5522
Sources
- ↑ City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, City of Johannesburg Municipal Planning By-Law, 2016, As Amended, 2023, Local Authority Notice 447 of 2024, Gauteng Provincial Gazette 117, 3 April 2024; approved by Council on 31 October 2023; in operation on the date of publication. City of Johannesburg copy (PDF).
- ↑ Municipal Planning By-law, 2024 (City of Johannesburg), Open By-laws South Africa, version of 3 April 2024, stated to include amendments published up to 18 September 2026; accessed 27 September 2026. openbylaws.org.za.
- ↑ City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, City of Johannesburg Municipal Planning By-law, 2016, text as originally adopted. City of Johannesburg copy (PDF).
- ↑ City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, City of Johannesburg Land Use Scheme, 2018, as amended 2025, Local Authority Promulgation Notice 390 of 2026; approved by Council on 30 September 2025; in operation from 1 July 2026. City of Johannesburg copy (PDF).
- ↑ City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, Office of the MMC for Development Planning, “CoJ promulgates new Municipal Planning By-law”, media statement, 9 April 2024. joburg.org.za (PDF).
Cite this Briefing
Glensburg Town Planners (2026). The Johannesburg Municipal Planning By-law: What Changed and What Applies Now. Glensburg Briefing 2026/01, 27 September 2026. Johannesburg: Glensburg Town Planners. https://glensburg.co.za/johannesburg-municipal-planning-by-law/
Version history
- Version 1. First published. Law stated as at 27 September 2026.
Next scheduled review March 2027, or sooner if the By-law is amended. This Briefing is general information about the City of Johannesburg Municipal Planning By-law. It is not legal advice or a planning opinion on any property, and it should not be relied on in place of advice on your property’s zoning, title deed and circumstances.