Moneyweb reported on 22 September that the Johannesburg office of the Master of the High Court will be without a head of office until November, and possibly longer. There is currently no acting Master in the post either. It is the second time in less than a year that Johannesburg has been left without one.
The Johannesburg Attorneys’ Association wrote to the Acting Chief Master more than a week before the article, asking for an appointment to be made urgently. Having had no reply, the Association took the request to the Minister of Justice on 21 September.
The same report says the Pretoria Master’s office, which moved to Francis Baard Street, “relocated in May this year and has been without functioning telephone lines ever since”. The numbers on the Department of Justice website still fail, and the Minister’s spokesperson describes the repair of the department’s wider IT network as still under way.
Two practical things follow. At Johannesburg, day-to-day examination carries on, but a file that has stalled has nowhere senior to go. At Pretoria, a phone call is not a way to chase anything at the moment; a written query, or someone at the counter, is.
Moneyweb’s full article also covers the review of the Administration of Estates Act and the draft bill to replace the Trust Property Control Act.
Files at Johannesburg are still being examined and Letters are still being issued. What is missing is someone at the top to escalate a stuck file to, so a pack that goes in right the first time matters more than usual.