Public property in South Africa: A human rights perspective

This article reviews public property and the distinct role of the state as public land owner within a rich human rights framework. To critically rethink the significance and purpose of this understudied legal subject, foundational observations are shared in the article. From a conceptual perspective, a distinction is drawn between common property that is openly accessible to all, and public property that is exclusively managed by the state for specific governmental purposes. Characteristically, the article suggests that these are two vastly divergent types of property that serve distinct aims; they are also subject to separate regulatory frameworks. The notion and communal significance of common property is unpacked with reference to the use of such property in the city of Cape Town to engage with some theoretical concerns dealing with the gradual degeneration of the public sphere. In the context of public property that is exclusively used and managed by the South African government, the article submits that the accustomed private property discourse is ill-suited to uncover and explore the nature, character, as well as the rights and interests of the state as public land owner. Instead, public land ownership should be approached and repurposed in line with constitutional commitments expressed in relation to property.