Dear Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services,copy of an email I have addressed and sent to the Master of the High Court, Cape Town, setting out danger signs of a failing system.
The Master of the High Court, Cape Town
I am writing this email in my capacity as an ordinary citizen of the Republic of South Africa. I am a retired judge of the High Court of South Africa, having served for 20 years in the Gauteng Local Division. The purpose of this email is to report and comment on an incident observed by me, as more fully described below.
The background to my involvement causing me to attend to the office of the Master of the High Court in Cape Town, on Friday 5 April 2024, at approximately 11h00, is the following. MsX (real name withheld) has been in my employment as a domestic worker, in Strand, for a number of years. MsX was appointed in the last will and testament of a lifelong lady friend of hers, as the sole heir and executor of the deceased’s estate. Her friend passed away on 15 June 2023. Ms X, who is a layperson and impecunious, requested me to assist her in reporting the estate to the Master and filing the required application and supporting documents for her appointment as executor of the deceased estate. I agreed to do so pro amico, in the drawing and completing of documents and advising on and overseeing compliance with the statutory requirements and deadlines applicable to the administration of deceased estates, of course merely in the background and in my personal capacity. There was however, another, albeit undisclosed reason for my willingness: I considered it prudent to put the test, and gain personal first-hand experience of what a layperson, seeking to make use of the public service she/he is entitled to, by organs of the State, in casu the Master of the High Court, was to expect.
Little did I realize what was awaiting me!
All the required documents were duly prepared, signed and commissioned where required. I obtained the gratuitous assistance of a local attorney, who personally served the application at the office of the Master of the High Court in Cape Town, on 8 August 2023. Except for an undated, unsigned tick box query-letter received from the Master, in which 2 irrelevant matters were raised, to which as a precaution a full response was filed, nothing further happened. Despite numerous emails on the progress made dispatched to the Master’s assistant dealing with the matter, both from my personal email address and the email address of Ms X’s daughter, as well as telephone calls made by the latter, the application, despite the lapse of 8 months, is still pending with no explanation or reason tendered for the inordinate delay. Recently MsX’s daughter once again, repeatedly attempted to phone the Master’s assistant, but none of the calls was answered or the telephone system was out of order.
It then became apparent that a deadlock situation had arisen. The application was obviously not attended to at all, and communication with the Master’s office proved to be either hardly achievable, or entirely fruitless. The only option left was to launch an application in the High Court for an order to compel compliance by the Master with its duties. Having considered the numerous imponderables of litigation, I decided, as a last resort, to personally attend the office of the Master, in order to seek an audience with whoever was involved in the matter, and to obtain some clarity as to the progress made with the application, or the reason for the lack thereof, and possibly negotiating some undertaking as to when the letter of executorship could be expected.
On approaching the office of the Master, on the day and at the time mentioned, I observed the hours of business clearly being indicated on the window of the building, as 08h00 – 13h00 on Fridays. It was just past 11h00, and therefore well within business hours. Arriving at the entrance to the building, I observed a group of 12 to 15 people, who were seemingly excited, protesting and moving around, some shouting at the top of their voices, with their clenched fists in the air. Behind the one double entrance door to the building, on the inside, a female security officer was firmly holding the door half-closed, thereby blocking any possible entry to the building. Another male security officer was moving around in the crowd, repeatedly informing them in a loud stringent tone that the office was now closed for a meeting, and that no entry by anyone was allowed. This fueled the emotions of many people in the crowd: a woman waving a document she held in her hand, started crying, telling the security officer that she has to speak to someone in the Master’s office today. The security officer barely looked at her, and flatly ignored her pleas.
Part 2 to follow.....