Mbombela Maintenance Court and Master's Office: What has happened since we last spoke...

 

In my previous blog post I have explained the standstill to which the Maintenance Court and the Master's Office was brought here in our city by the cyber attack that has disabled the IT systems of the entire Department of Justice and Constitutional Development throughout the country.

As you may remember, the Department has long since said that the system is recovering.

In spite of this- these two offices were still at a standstill. You may also remember that I have pointed out that no way was yet being sought to assist the public in a manner that did not require the computer network...

So- 

What has happened since then?

On Monday the 8th of November 2021 the Maintenance Court had a visitor. It was Mr Vusumzi Ngamlana from the Public Protector who was sent to find out what was going on at our Maintenance Office and how the public experienced the service.

The two applications that I still had waiting for case numbers were accepted for processing soon afterward, but the Maintenance Clerk has fallen ill before case numbers could be made available.

According to the Maintenance Officer and Family Court Supervisor there was simply nobody that could assist us and case numbers are still outstanding. 

The situation has been brought to the attention of the Court Manager and we ought to know within the coming week what has happened.

As for the Master's Office we were grateful to hear from the Deputy Master Mr Vuyani Lallie that the Estate Controller is working overtime at the moment to see to the long waiting list on which our matters currently are.

Estate numbers are being allocated and we may now expect to see letters of executorship coming out in our newly reported estates.

The sad reality is that members of the public seldom get into contact with the contact persons with whom we have been communicating with regard to this situation.

Even though the Master's Office and Maintenance Court are public offices that are open and accessible to the public the staff with whom the public do come in contact often present challenges of their own when it comes to service delivery.

We are attending to the challenges faced by our clients under these circumstances and refuse to give up until we have our matters finalised.

  

Our sincerest thanks to the supervisors of these offices and their staff who have given us the necessary feedback.

May we soon see that their offices are in full working order.