The Constitutional Court has proposed a set of rules that for the first time will allow attachment of state property for debt.

This came on Monday as its judges again pushed back a deadline to allow the government to get its house in order on the issue.

Last year the court gave the thumbs down to the 1957 law that prevents people owed money by the state from attaching state assets in lieu of payment.

The court suspended that declaration of unconstitutionality for 12 months to allow Parliament to pass legislation setting out how attachments should be done.

The suspension was extended on June 1 this year, but only to Monday.

On Monday, the court issued an order extending the suspension to August 2011.

It also proposed an interim order to operate during the suspension to provide for "a tailored attachment and execution procedure against State assets".

The State and everyone else involved have until September 15 to file arguments against the proposal.

The proposal is that creditors be allowed to take judgment against the State, then serve notice on the State Attorney and the government department concerned, of intention to attach movable property.

However it would still be possible for "any affected party" to apply for a stay of execution on the ground that it was not "in the interests of justice and good governance" to seize and sell the property.

The case was brought on behalf of Dingaan Nyathi, who fought a five-year battle for money the State acknowledged it owed him after incorrect treatment at a public hospital left him disabled.

He died two months after it was eventually paid.

Part of the problem was Nyathi's inability to get the government to pay, despite a court order.

The Department of Justice earlier this year proposed an amendment to the Constitution and published a draft State Liability Bill in what it said was an attempt to "prevent future Nyathi cases".