Appeal application in Amahlathi.

SPLUMA requires municipalities to establish an appeal mechanism against decisions of a Municipal Planning Tribunal or an authorised official. The appeal authority differs by municipality - in many it is the executive authority or a designated appeal authority - and the by-law sets out who may appeal, by when, and in what form.

An appeal is not a second attempt at the same application. It is an argument that the decision was wrong: that a relevant consideration was ignored, an irrelevant one taken into account, a material fact misconstrued, a condition imposed without a rational basis, or the reasons given inadequate. Simply resubmitting the original motivation with more emphasis rarely succeeds.

Both applicants and objectors can usually appeal. An owner affected by a neighbour's approval has the same statutory window, and the same requirement to ground the appeal in the decision rather than in general opposition. Where the appeal window has closed, the remaining route is judicial review under the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000, which is slower, costlier and considerably narrower.

The Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act 16 of 2013 (SPLUMA) is the national framework: it requires every municipality to adopt its own land use scheme and municipal planning by-law, and it makes the municipality - not the province - the authority of first instance on land development applications. The appeal provisions themselves sit in the municipal planning by-law and must be read for the specific deadline and appeal authority that apply.