Question NW225 to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services

Reply:

On 24 November 2024, the Master of the High Court committed to implementing immediate/short-term interventions as part of the Master’s turn-around strategy. The progress and the implementation thereof is reported as follows:

a) Intervention 1: The roll-out of the Deceased Estates Online system nationally by January 2024.

b) This intervention is assisting the Masters in addressing challenges of long queues, long turn-around times in issuing appointment letters and it enables practitioners as well as members of the public to lodge deceased estates online and to book appointments online to visit the Masters’ offices at a date and time of their choosing. Masters and ICT have successfully completed the roll-out of the system on 14 December 2023 in all Masters’ offices as well as service points. As at 21 February 2024, 2926 applications were lodged on the online system. The 2926 applications are explained in detail as follows:

CASE STATUS	NUMBER OF CASES
Total number of Applications	2926
Incomplete (awaiting client/attorney finalisation and submission)	217
Awaiting DHA validations (failed DHA validations)	1
Rework Requested (awaiting client/attorney corrections)	429
Screen Application and awaiting Masters’ approval	408
Will lodgement (awaiting original will lodgement at Masters)	39
Cases Registered (completed and letters issued)	1832

c) Intervention 2: Increased visibility and education on the Deceased Estates online functionalities and other Masters’ services – The Department has developed and published training videos on the Masters’ portal, YouTube and on the DOJ & CD Facebook platform on 29 January 2024. The videos can be accessed by practitioners and members of the public to assist them in lodging deceased estates applications, booking appointments online and tracking the status of their applications.

d) Intervention 3: Increased engagements with the legal fraternity and provision of training on online platforms as requested by the Law Society of South Africa - On 23 January 2024, a training webinar was hosted by the Office of the Chief Master to train stakeholders practising in deceased estates on the use of the new online system, provide them with further updates on future developments and to give them a platform to raise any issues they may have with the Masters’ services. The initial intention was to engage only legal practitioners however, members of FISA, BASA, CIBA and SAICA participated in the webinar. 2308 legal practitioners, fiduciary professionals and accountants were trained in the webinar.

(2) what is the progress regarding the piloting of the online registration system?

The target on the Masters’ APP 2023/2024 was to roll-out the deceased estates online registration system in three (3) Masters’ offices by 31 March 2024 however, it is with delight that we can report that this system has been implemented in all 16 Masters’ offices on 14 December 2023. The expedited implementation was in a bid to improve service delivery as well as access to the Masters’ services and alleviate the challenges experienced by clients having to physically visit the offices. All clients across the country can now report deceased estates in the comfort of their homes. The Masters have seen a marked reduction in queues. Further, clients who are not tech savvy or who do not have access to technology have been assisted to lodge estates online by the Masters with the use of staff-assisted and self-service kiosks.