Regardless of what a state property company’s governing legislation eventually dictates, any entity assuming a custodian role would presumably inherit the mandatory custodian obligations confirmed by Adonisi under the Government Immovable Asset Management Act (GIAMA), which necessitate evaluating alternative users, social development initiatives, and socio-economic objectives prior to disposal.
While the recent announcement of a State Property Company to manage roughly 88,000 public buildings and five million hectares of state land has generated considerable interest, it is not a new policy initiative.
The concept was first proposed more than 20 years earlier through the Draft State Property Management Company Bill, published for comment in Government Gazette No. 23191 on 28 February 2002 (Notice 301 of 2002), which envisaged a public company, wholly owned by the state, responsible for the strategic and operational management of the state’s fixed asset portfolio.
This is according to a LinkedIn post titled "The Constitutional Court's Tafelberg Judgment and Why South Africa's State Property Company Is Not a New Idea", written by Thapelo E. Mmusinyane, the head of real estate at eThekwini Municipality.
