South African Legal System in a Quagmire: Master's Offices' Inefficiencies cause Delays in Legal Procedures

The Office of the Master of the High Court, a vital cog in South Africa's legal machine, appears increasingly dysfunctional, with reports of chaotic scenes inside the Johannesburg branch and rampant inefficiencies leading to prolonged legal procedures.

This disarray primarily impacts the processing of deceased estates and the management of trusts. Notably, the Master's Office also governs the Guardian’s Fund, responsible for managing finances for those legally unable to do so, such as children and individuals with mental health challenges. Its current state, as Cape Town attorneys anonymously highlighted, has deteriorated significantly since the COVID outbreak.

Reports mentioned uncontrolled disarray of papers in the Johannesburg office, random filing systems, and unresponsive staff, leading to unpredictability in document issuance timelines. Moreover, the office inefficiencies hinder the public and attorneys from approaching the staff for assistance.

The process of liquidating an estate of a deceased, which involves 15 steps and should ideally complete in six to eight months, as outlined by the Fiduciary Institute of Southern Africa (Fisa), is significantly delayed. Legal professionals express frustration over the prolonged wait times for 'letters of executorship', a critical document that unfreezes the deceased's assets.

The economic ramifications of these delays are troubling as heirs cannot access their inheritances, amounting to millions of rands, trapped in the legal system, thus stifling their economic contribution.

Efforts to digitise the Master’s Office operations have fallen short, with Katherine Gascoigne, a Johannesburg attorney, noting lack of access to files and critical documents months after the initiation of the process. These inefficiencies coupled with the Deceased Estates Portal's recent cyber attacks compromising substantial funds compound the existing issues plaguing the system.