The economy will suffer enormous losses at a crucial time of the year if a national strike by investigators in South Africa?s nine deeds offices goes ahead this week, local lawyers, estate agents and property developers have warned.

The planned strike by about 1 000 deeds investigators at the department of land affairs is set to start on Tuesday. Deeds investigators are responsible for investigating and approving the registration of transfer of property from sellers to buyers, the cancellation of existing bonds and the registration of new bonds. The process normally takes 10 days.

All the investigators planning to strike are represented by the Association of Civil Servants of South Africa. They have been in a dispute with the department over the past four years over performance incentives.

Union spokesman Manie de Clerq said due to the enormous disruption expected by the strike, they had given the government more than a week?s notice to make a potential settlement possible. But this had not happened.

Walmer transfer attorney Franelie Swanepoel said: ?This thing can snowball, but property developers and estate agents will be the hardest hit.?

She said players in the property market depend on swift property transfers for their cash flow. If cash flow runs dry at this time of year, it can have drastic implications before the Christmas holidays when people need business to be concluded fast.

Eastern Cape employees of deeds offices, who asked not be named, said they hoped the strike could be averted, because the principle of no work, no pay would apply and they could not really afford not to work.

But the dispute had been dragging on for too long, they said. Investigators were promised four years ago that junior investigators who processed more than 38 files a day and senior investigators who processed more than 56 files a day would be paid bonuses. This amounted to almost half of their pay packages, but it was stopped two year ago.

One investigator said the strike action will ?effectively bring the property and financial market to a standstill?.

The union and the department were in negotiations until a month ago but neither party believes there is any hope of a settlement at this stage.

Eastern Province Herald