Directors of the Programme Aden Thomas from Heart FM and the Regional Head Adv Mohamed Hishaam;
Deputy Minister John Jeffery;
Judge President John Hlophe;
Esteemed Judges and Judicial Offices;
Our Peoples Representatives, Members Of Parliament And Councillors;
Chairperson of Justice Portfolio Committee, Mr Llewellyn Landers;
Director General; Ms Nonkululeko Sindane;
Heads of the JCPS Cluster;
Chief Master and colleagues;
Regional Head Hishaam Mohammed;
Our Justice Family (Nadel; BLA; Law Society; Bar Council; Sheriffs Board; NPA, Legal Aid);
Mrs Farieda Omar and members of the Omar family;
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and gentlemen.
It gives me great pleasure to be here today, as we open the new service point of the Master of the High Court here in this beautiful City of Cape Town. As many of you will know, this month is dedicated to public service and also equally importantly it is dedicated to the celebration of our various heritages as a country.
There could have been no better time to open this new service point as we continue to deposit into the reservoir of our common heritages through our work aimed at consolidating our democratic project. The rights and services that must be provided through this new services point give deeper substance to the meaning of our democratic dispensation. I say this because there are some who attempt to make the lie that we have failed as government. The reality is that year in and year out we have continued to roll back the contours of poverty while making the democratic gains of our new dispensation to be more accessible to all our people.
In housing, in health, in basic and higher education, in transport systems, in access to electricity and in infrastructure development, are some of the many efforts we, as the ANC Government have made over the past two decades to give deeper meaning to our constitutional democracy. Those of you who are more involved in the justice sector in your various capacities, both in the department and other associated institutions, will know how many new magistrate courts we have been building which are more accessible to the poor, just here in Cape Town and surrounding areas alone. You would also know the Thuthuzela Centres we have launched and the efforts at ensuring that the Child Justice Act finds expression in the court proceedings.
These are some of the many efforts that our government has made to ensure that indeed when we celebrate National Heritage Day we do so without any fear of contradiction.
Of course there are outstanding challenges, but in all this, we are inspired by the knowledge that South Africa is today better than it was in 1994 and that tomorrow holds the promise that it will be better than today!
Amongst the challenges we sought to attend to during the Women’s Month in August, was to focus against women and child abuse. We have learnt through the news just this week the very horrible and tragic story of a 4 year old girl-child who was raped, assaulted and hanged in the most gruesome way that anyone can ever imagine in Diepsloot in Johannesburg.
In one street in Mitchells Plain, two children went missing. Five year old Kauthar Bobbs went missing on 11 October 2012 while Shaskia Michaels went missing last week Wednesday. More often than not such child disappearances end in the gruesome sexual abuse and brutal murder of innocent young souls.
This is a tragedy that runs against every grain of the kind of society we seek to build; one based on lawful conduct that protects the most vulnerable in society. In this we urge the community, the investigating police, the prosecutors and the courts to send the sternest message that we as a society will not tolerate this kind of behaviour. Instead of pointing fingers at each other, it is high time that we made a difference in the communities where we live by ensuring that any conduct that gives suspicion to criminality must be reported to the police.
The harshest of sentences must be given for those who conduct themselves in such brutal ways against innocent children! As the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, we will continue to strengthen the institutional frameworks of the Sexual Offences Courts so that they send the stern message that the harshest possible consequences will befall those who violate the rights of women and children.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Against the backdrop of the recent Women’s Month celebrations this is one of the many offices in our democratic dispensation that are led by very capable women. This is indicative of our commitment to gender transformation as our core values. This gender conscious act is in addition to offices such as those of the Director-General of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, the Public Protector, and the Office of the Chief Justice, just to mention a few.
As part of ensuring better service delivery, this new service point is equipped with the modernised IT systems in the Master’s Services.
The department has identified the transformation of Master’s Services as one of its strategic priorities. This has led to a need to professionalise the service in all aspects.
The Master’s new service point will thus provide for a modernised efficient service, one of those modernised tools being that the Master will now be able to use the Master’s Own Verification Technology, abbreviated MOVIT. This is essentially the Master’s own identification system, whereby people will no longer need to first go to the Home Affairs Offices to verify their identification. So the Master is now able to do that on site in the event of suspicious identification documents. If there is any intention to conduct fraud, the long arm of the law would then kick in immediately.
The Master's Branch serves the public in very important respects of Deceased Estates, Liquidations (Insolvent Estates), Registration of Trusts, Tutors and Curators, as well as administration of the Guardian's Fund (minors and mentally challenged persons).
These are very important services as it is essentially geared to serve the most vulnerable in society through the State acting as trustee of their estates. I urge those working in these corridors and elsewhere in the country in similar offices to know that they have been entrusted, on behalf of the State, with the huge responsibility to serve our people with integrity. Those of you working in these offices, should know that if any of you undermine this faith that the public has bestowed on our government, it is ultimately the government that is viewed as having undermined the people.
This year we have also increased the centres for payment of Guardian Fund benefits from 10 in our previous financial year to 29. This Fund, the value of currently stands at R9 billion, contributes to the improvement of the quality of life of thousands of our orphaned children. On a monthly basis, the Masters of the High Court of the Western Cape deals with about 260 new applications for insolvency, 500 new guardian funds payment applications, 800 trusts and 1 300 deceased estates applications. The Master of the High Court serves the entire Western Cape Province with a population of more than 5 million people.
Working with the public purse requires high levels of integrity by all involved, as there is always the temptation to misappropriate funds from the very vulnerable of our people. As government we are tightening security at all levels and anyone found to have embezzled public funds will face the full might of the law! As we open this new service point, I am certain that those working here will not disappoint us in anyway, by ensuring service excellence to all our people. We may deploy the best systems and the latest state-of-the-art technology, but without due diligence by those entrusted to use it, all that would have been in vain. Often when we open such facilities we forget to pass the important message that the facilities are as good as the officials who will utilise them to serve our people.
The Master’s office has been rendering these services at Justitia building which is part of the Magistrate Court of Cape Town. The building also houses the Regional Court. It is evident that the building was not in sync with the Master’s service. An example at hand were instances when accused persons who have to appear in very serious criminal matters in the Regional Court have to walk in between our officials and members of the public awaiting Master’s services.
The relocation of the Master’s services will bring more dignified environment for the rendering of services. There will be more visibility as the services would now be brought closer to the people. There will also be disability facilities, including improved health and safety laws, more office space, a library and training rooms.
A paperless Estates Administration Process will be introduced which will be a complete transformation of the current service. This process entails that any member of the public will be able to access any Service Point/Magistrate Office in the jurisdiction of the Master of Cape Town. Trusts will be registered online thereby removing the need for the public to either post or hand deliver Trust Deeds to the Office.
Very importantly, allow me to emphasise the socio economic role of this service point to the families as this will ensure speedy and accurate payment of guardian fund monies to unlock their lives, as delayed payments have the dire consequences of stalling the livelihood of the beneficiaries. In order to maximise the positive impact of these payments towards improving the lives of the beneficiaries, we have a partnership with the Legal Aid South Africa to support vulnerable children to access their benefits if they head households with small estates. This is very important as it brings a much needed relief through saving the estate monies from costly legal fees as in many instances legal professionals are employed in helping access the deceased estates. This adds value to the real meaning of access to justice, through affordable services.
Speedy liquidations and winding up of companies assist in unlocking the economy as it provides breakthrough on the impasse occasioned by delays in this regard.
One of the problematic areas of our economy is the manifestation of greed amongst liquidators to the point that it defeats the good intention of liquidation, which is to resolve the impasse of entities whose estate must be released as the business project could no longer continue for a varied number of reasons. Also liquidators must put the interest of the country, workers and business as part of their responsibilities by ensuring speedy finalisation for the relief of shareholders and more especially workers who would be generally left destitute for years after the collapse of a company while the matter is being fought in the courts of law to no bitter end by trustees, liquidators and the like.
Ladies and gentlemen,
This building boasts of sufficient floors and relevant facilities enabling proper handling and storage of the information in the form of hard files that were previously the norm as we migrate them into electronic information for easy usage and storage. Our people as clients utilising the Master Office will from henceforth be served in dignity consistent with what the Constitution dictates. Loosing files will from now be a thing of the past because the ICT infrastructure will take care of that as there is now sufficient space even to address the challenges of live files in the event the system goes down for whatever reason.
The infrastructure improvements fulfil the right to access to courts as guaranteed by the Constitution. It will further underscore our departmental vision of “a transformed and accessible justice system which promotes and protects social justice and the rule of law”.
As we celebrate our collective efforts to ensure justice is accessible to all our people during this Public Service Month, all employees of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, must be cognisant of the fact that we are responsible for the fulfilment of an important mandate of our Constitutional democracy. This mandate is to ensure the letter and spirit of our Constitution resonates with the lived experiences of all our people.
As government, we are fully conscious of the many challenges that slow the processes of service delivery. We have launched the government Public Service Standards and the Public Service Charter against which the Master’s services will be tested to address the best interest of the poor and all its clients.
On the opportune moment of September being a Heritage month, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has named this Master’s Service Point after the former Minister of Justice, the late Mr Dullah Omar, in recognition of his impeccable legacy. The late Mr Dullah Omar was the first Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development in the democratic Republic of South Africa and he was indeed an advocate for Access to Justice Services.
He represented many families in rural areas and ensured that they had Master’s services. He spearheaded the drive that even the poor must have wills that would have ensured less hassle or family feuds for their heirs. It is thus a symbol of honour to someone who made a huge contribution towards ending apartheid and establishing a non-racial democratic society. It is also recognition to a legacy that reminiscent of access to justice for the poor.
I therefore fully trust that this new service point will be guided by Mr Dullah Omar’s humility, selfless dedication and commitment to the cause of those seeking Justice services. It is befitting Dullar Omar’s stature that as we celebrate our National Heritage Month, his legacy becomes an important part of that national heritage.
As I conclude, once more I invite the departmental leadership and all Master’s officials at this service point to embrace the values of our struggle icon, Mr Dullah Omar, by ensuring that service excellence will be the distinguishing factor at this office.
On behalf of our democratic government, I entrust this new service point of the Master of the High Court to all stakeholders, including the officials who will continue working here and most importantly, the community of this beautiful City of Cape Town who are clients of this service centre, to utilise these services mindful of the fact that these facilities belong to you all as a community.
As government we pledge that we will continue to do our best towards improving the lives of all our people here in the Western Cape and everywhere in our country.
Phambili nge service delivery phambili!
I thank you!
