Deputy Justice Minister John Jeffery has seen for himself the poor service the public and law practitioners have to put up with after making a surprise visit to the Master’s Office in Pretoria on Friday, reports Legalbrief. The inspection follows a previously unannounced visit to the Cape Town Master’s Office.
A report in The Citizen notes several legal and insolvency practitioners have expressed concerns about shocking service delivery and massive backlogs at Master’s Offices around the country. The department said service delivery was initially negatively affected by Covid-19 and then further exacerbated by a ransomware cyber-attack last year. Jeffery – who was joined by deputy chairperson of the Legal Practice Council, Advocate Kennedy Tsatsawane – found that while several improvements had supposedly been made, the public were still faced with poor service delivery. ‘Although the queues were shorter than in Cape Town, queue management and the directing of members of the public to the correct sections could be improved,’ read a statement from the Justice Department.
There were also complaints of staff shortages, equipment taking too long to be repaired and an insufficient number of printers. As with the Cape Town Master’s Office, there were complaints of e-mails and phones going unanswered. IT issues remain a challenge, says the report. According to the statement, Jeffery ‘is in ongoing discussions with both the Chief Master and the DG of the Justice Department to find solutions’. Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister plans to continue making unannounced visits throughout the country.
Source: LegalBrief