Chaos at the Cape Town Master’s Office, with life and death consequences

Sunrise queues snaking around the block. A “runners’ mafia” dedicated to queue jumping. Key officials on leave for months at a time, and the office closed for Valentine’s Day celebrations.

The stories coming out of one of South Africa’s lowest-profile but most indispensable legal institutions almost strain credulity.

For years, the Master’s Office has been the cornerstone of estate administration, trust registrations and curatorships in South Africa.

But according to lawyers, law firm employees and frustrated members of the public, it is now a disaster zone. The backlogs are staggering, corruption appears rife, and a new online system touted as transformative progress is constantly down.

The Master of the Cape Town High Court, Zureena Agulhas, did not respond to Daily Maverick’s questions this week.

The office of the Master of the High Court in central Cape Town. (Photo: Supplied)

A system in collapse

“I have been practising as such for over 30 years, and the Master’s Office has never been in such complete disarray as the past few years,” says Annaliese Lubowski, director of Alcock & Associates law firm.

Lubowski was the only lawyer Daily Maverick spoke to who was willing to be identified in this article. Others said that they feared that if they were named they might be punished through even worse service at the Master’s Office in future. This timidity seems to extend to the law bodies, too.

“Official organisations are often too careful to voice the extent of the rot at the Master,” said Lubowski.

“Unfortunately, the situation is so dire that our clients do not believe us any more and several practitioners have been reported to the Law Society by clients assuming they do not attend to their duties.”

The Master’s Office is a little-known but critical institution because it is responsible for the administration of all wills and trusts in South Africa.

The vital services provided by the office include dealing with wills and trusts. (Photo: Rebecca Davis)

Once a person dies, Lubowski explained, all their assets are frozen until the appointment of an executor. No money can be paid out from an estate without going through the Master’s Office.

“They are also the only government organisation that can appoint a curator for a person who is unable to attend to his or her own financial affairs, or for minors,” said Lubowski.

“To make matters worse, they are also in charge of the Guardian’s Fund, which is the fund that exists to safeguard minors’ inheritances in cases where there is no guardian or trustee appointed by a will. Differently put, they are the upper guardian of minors.”

Queues outside the Cape Town Master’s Office now start before dawn. If you are not in line by 5am, you have no chance of securing one of the coveted 50 spots available per day to law firms to get their matters seen to.

Opening hours for the Master's Office are highly restrictive — and lawyers say in reality even more limited than this. (Photo: Rebecca Davis)

To try to game the system, law firms send “runners” to hold places in line and jump the queue. One lawyer Daily Maverick spoke to this week referred to a “runners’ mafia”.

Tensions run so high in the queue that matters often descend into open conflict. Daily Maverick was sent an affidavit by a lawyer who sought a protection order against a “runner” who allegedly physically threatened her during an altercation over queue-jumping.

But getting in front of an official is just the beginning of the ordeal.

Monumental backlog

Lawyers interviewed by Daily Maverick this week painted a uniform picture of a system so inefficient it is grinding to a virtual halt.

Routine administrative actions that should take a week or so can run on for months, or even years: one lawyer said it takes more than two years to change the trustees in a trust. One reason for the delays is that crucial documents go “missing” or are misplaced in offices.

Those offices, all too often, are simply locked up and empty: Daily Maverick heard this week that one key official was on leave for six weeks and has since been on sick leave for more than a month.

A system to move several core services online was launched with great fanfare, but has become the source of its own problems — partly because it is so often offline and partly because of a lack of familiarity with the processes from staff.

“At a recent meeting late last year, we were informed that they are behind with 6,000 trusts as they are not properly trained to use the online system,” said Lubowski.

These delays have life and death consequences.

Lubowski cited a particularly tragic case, for which Daily Maverick has seen documented evidence, in which a frail, dying man cannot access funds for his healthcare because his estate matters are tangled in the Master’s Office backlog after the suicide of his spouse. His only financial relief would come from the sale of a jointly owned property, but the Master’s Office delays mean he may not live to see it finalised.

Office closed for Valentine’s Day?

Daily Maverick was informed that the Master’s Office was closed for a significant portion of 14 February for Valentine’s Day celebrations — something the Department of Justice says it is looking into.

“The notion that the office would close unnecessarily, thereby disrupting essential services, is concerning,” Department of Justice and Constitutional Development spokesperson Terrence Manase told Daily Maverick.

“The report we received from the Master of the High Court, Cape Town, is that a brief team-building exercise was held on 14 February 2025 as part of an initiative to boost staff morale and that event took place strictly during lunch hours, from 13h00 to 13h30, ensuring that it did not interfere with public services or disrupt daily operations.”

Manase added: “We will continue to investigate this matter, and if our findings contradict the report, we will take appropriate disciplinary action.”

Manase acknowledged that there were “administrative delays” at the Master’s Office and said the department was implementing a “Master’s Turnaround Strategy” aimed at “addressing inefficiencies, streamlining processes and ensuring quicker resolution of administrative matters”.

As part of it, more staff are set to be hired and more procedural elements automated.

The spokesperson defended the online system, saying that it had within one year “enabled the removal of over 19,000 citizens from our physical queues by enabling them to lodge estates from the comfort of their homes”.

He also noted that the effectiveness of the Master’s online system was inextricably connected to the fate of other online systems, but particularly that of the Department of Home Affairs — a system which is notoriously often offline.

A notice at the Cape Town Master's Office. (Photo: Rebecca Davis)

The price of efficiency? Bribery

One of the most concerning aspects of the current state of play at the Master’s Office is the extent to which bribery appears to have become routine.

One lawyer specified the price tag attached to getting things done: “My messenger told me that some of the Master officials previously told him that if he wanted to expedite matters, R700 in a brown envelope is the way to go. I was told by another practitioner yesterday that the amount has now increased to R5,000 in a rolled-up newspaper.”

These “facilitation fees” have led to a perverse economy within the Master’s Office, where those with cash get priority while others languish in bureaucratic limbo.

When Daily Maverick visited the Master’s Office this week, one thing stood out: signs everywhere, loudly declaring that the services are free. If officials have to remind the public that they’re not supposed to pay bribes, that’s usually a red flag.

Signs everywhere warn the public not to pay for services — an indication that bribery is rife.

“The presence of anti-corruption notices in our offices is not an indication of endemic corruption but rather a proactive measure to deter unlawful practices,” Manase told Daily Maverick in response.

“We are deeply concerned by any suggestion that bribery is being used to expedite services. We encourage any person with evidence of bribery or misconduct to report such incidents to the Department [of Justice] as well as to the Office of the Chief Master so that appropriate action can be taken.”

Manase said that his department was well aware of the “challenges in the functioning of the Master’s Office” and was committed to addressing them.

“We are confident that these efforts will yield tangible improvements in the coming months,” he said.

In the meantime, estates remain frozen, trusts remain in limbo, and South Africans dealing with life’s most sensitive legal matters are left stranded. DM