Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa December 14/ January 15 | Page 49

INSIGHTS

By Thomas Matlala

Transformation
in the Property Industry

N

ow is the time for government to implement
and enforce policies. According to Thomas
Matlala, President at the South African
Institute for Black Property Practitioners (SAIBPP),
“The era of government crafting wonderful and
enlightened policies, that are the envy of the world, but
failing to implement and enforce them is over. It’s time
to act two decades into our democracy.”
“While much has been achieved in the past 20 years
in the property industry through the entry of black
players and women more still needs to be done.
The past four years has seen the rise of new black
property players such as Rebosis Property Fund by
CEO Sisa Ngebulana, Delta Property Fund by CEO
Sandile Nomvete and Dipula Income Fund by CEO
Izak Petersen who have listed black-managed and
substantially owned funds on the Johannesburg Stock
Exchange worth billions of Rands.

“Many… consortiums
‘disappeared’ from the
sector by selling their
shares once they had
made their money.”
However, black people are still highly underrepresented in the high echelons of real power and
decision-making in most listed property companies.
According to research done by IPD SA in 2013
and 2014, out of a total of 261 non-Executive and
Executive Directors only 53 are black and 189 are
white. Black people are over-represented as nonExecutive Directors, meaning they don’t play a role
www.reimag.co.za

Now is the time!
in operational management of these companies. The
report shockingly shows that there are only six black
Executive Directors on the boards of listed property
companies. “Many lessons were learnt during the early
to mid-2000s, but one often-untold story is that many
of the consortiums ‘disappeared’ from the sector by
selling their shares once they had made their money.
This may have been a missed opportunity for the start
of black property empires,” says Sesfikile Director,
Kundayi Munzara.
Government has partly played it’s part too in
promoting the emergence of black property players.
In 2011, the Department of Public Works (DPW)
stopped signing long-term leases with established
property companies or individual landlords who
lacked empowerment credentials. This was a catalyst
for the listing of so-called BEE funds, or funds with
BEE credentials such as Ascension, Delta, Dipula and
Rebosis, with a combined market cap of R14 billion
(about 4% of the total market cap of the sector). The
listed property sector has a market capitalisation of
almost R400 billion.
Matlala says that is why government appeals to
SAIBPP – the biggest tenant and landlord – to use
its massive influence to bring about drastic change
to the property industry. For Sandile Nomvete, Delta
Property Fund CEO, the transformation of the
property industry is intricately linked to efforts to
transform the entire South Africa’s economy, in order
to reduce the yawning economic disparities among
citizens – the so-called ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ –
which is a legacy of South Africa’s past.
“Transformation, therefore, is part of a larger project
to ensure everyone thrives and leads meaningful lives.”
For him, such economic transformation is crucial to
creating a stable society.

RESOURCES
The South African Institute of Black Property Practitioners
December 14 / January 15 SA Real Estate Investor

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