Representatives of the Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) recently addressed Parliament’s Justice and Correctional Services Portfolio Committee on the chaos existing at the various Masters’ offices spread throughout the country. LSSA’s Hussani Goga told committee members that the Masters’ offices were not functioning as it should for a number of years and that the Covid-19 pandemic and load shedding had exacerbated matters.
Goga cited a lack of leadership, lack of service delivery, correspondence being unanswered, email correspondence not being utilised by the officials in the Masters’ offices, phones not being answered and it being impossible to contact officials to discuss matters.
The representative added that other challenges were files being misplaced, queues not sufficiently managed, vacancies not being filled, allegations of bribery and directives issued by individual Masters without consultation and no transparency on insolvency applications.
The LSSA made mention of a complaint which it had recently received from an attorney that the Master’s office had not responded to the complaints lodged with the Master regarding one of his matters. He had escalated the matter to the Master’s Escalation List but had not even received an acknowledgement thereof nor had any of his follow-up emails elicited any response, not even from the office of the Chief Master. The practitioner had also attended the Master’s office on a weekly basis, but all to no avail.
The chairperson of the Portfolio Committee undertook to discuss the LSSA’s concerns with the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services and with the Chief Master.
DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach also broached the topic in Parliament, asking the Minister about the plans to turn the situation around. She said all offices have ceased to function, with the waiting time for essential documents now reaching months.
Minister Ronald Lamola, responding to Breytenbach’s question, has dismissed the suggestion that the Master’s office was dysfunctional. He said the statement that all the Master’s offices were dysfunctional and have ceased to function is wide, “as there are no specifics provided in order for the Master to respond to the same”.
Lamola indicated that in a bid to improve service delivery, a Master’s branch together with the ICT branch have been developing an online deceased estates solution to address challenges experienced by clients when reporting an estate with the Master.
The Minister said: “The online deceased system seeks to enable South African citizens to submit their deceased estate applications online, giving the user the ability to register an estate from the comfort of their home or office without the need physically to visit any Master’s office or service point of the Master. This system was already successfully piloted in the Master’s offices in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, and it is envisaged that it will be launched into live production during October 2023 in the Master’s offices in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Pretoria and Thohoyandou.”
However, Lamola noted that the Masters’ offices were hard hit by challenges such as load shedding, struggling to obtain files from off-site facilities, understaffing, budget cuts and constant network challenges.
On a personal note: members of our estates department were recently very excited when the first-ever email communication from an official at the Master’s office, Johannesburg was received by them!
There is certainly a ray of light at the end of what has been a very long and dark tunnel.
