(1) Subject to this Act, land within the area of a local planning authority may be acquired—
(a) for the implementation of any proposal, including development, redevelopment or improvement, contained in an operative master plan or local plan or an approved scheme; or
(b) in terms of section forty-seven or forty-eight.
(2) An acquisition of land in terms of this Act may be by way of—
(a) purchase, exchange, donation or other agreement with the owner of the land; or
(b) expropriation in accordance with section forty-six; or
(c) the imposition in a permit of a condition referred to in section forty-one.
(3) Where a local planning authority has acquired land in terms of paragraph (a) of subsection (1), the Minister may, at the request of that authority, direct—
(a) the Surveyor-General to cancel the whole or a portion of the general plan, as the case may be, in so far as it relates to land so acquired or any contiguous land which constitutes a public place as defined in section 2 of the Land Survey Act [Chapter 20:12] and on receipt of such direction the Surveyor-General shall, notwithstanding sections 46 and 47 of the Land Survey Act [Chapter 20:12] but subject to Part II of the Roads Act [Chapter 13:12], cancel the whole or portion of the general plan as so directed;
(b) the Registrar of Deeds, upon the production to him of the title deeds to all the properties concerned, whether in the name of the local planning authority or not, and a diagram of the combined area, to issue to the local planning authority a certificate of consolidated title in respect of the combined area and the Registrar of Deeds shall comply with such direction.
(4) The powers conferred by subsection (1) may be exercised by the local planning authority or by another body in whose favour land is reserved in terms of the operative master plan or local plan or the approved scheme and, for the purposes of this section, where land has been so reserved for a particular purpose, the land shall be deemed to have been reserved in favour of the State, a local authority or a statutory body established to carry out that purpose as may be appropriate.
(5) Any land acquired in terms of this Part by a local planning authority which— (a) is a local authority shall vest in such local authority; (b) is not a local authority shall vest in the President.
(6) If any of the title deeds referred to in paragraph (b) of subsection (3) is lost or is otherwise unobtainable, then, upon the direction of the Minister after advertisement has been made in the manner provided under the Deeds Registries Act [Chapter 10:05], the Registrar of Deeds shall, if he is satisfied that no good reason to the contrary exists, issue to the local planning authority the certificate of consolidated title referred to in that paragraph.