High Courts of South Africa

High Courts of South Africa
South Africa

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
South Africa



Other countries · Atlas
Politics portal
view · talk · edit

A crowd outside the Johannesburg High Court during the Jacob Zuma rape trial.

The High Courts are superior courts of law in South Africa. The courts were created in 1996 on the adoption of the Constitution of South Africa, and inherited the jurisdiction of the provincial and local divisions of the former Supreme Court of South Africa. High Courts have general jurisdiction over defined geographical areas in which they are situated, and the decisions of the High Courts are binding on magistrates' courts within their areas of jurisdiction. The High Courts have jurisdiction over all matters in their geographical area, but they usually only hear civil matters involving more than 100,000 rand, and serious criminal cases. They also hear any appeals or reviews from lower courts (magistrates’ courts) which fall in their geographical jurisdiction. The High Courts usually hear any matter involving a person’s status (for example, adoption, insolvency).

Important officers in a High Court

Each High Court is headed by a Judge President. The registrar keeps all the official court documents. The family advocate must be consulted on all matters involving children, as the High Court is the "upper guardian" of all children in South Africa. The Master of the High Court keeps all the records relating to people’s estates (deceased or insolvent). The Sheriff delivers certain documents to the parties in a civil case, and also attaches property when a warrant is issued. The Director of Public Prosecutions, who used to be called the Attorney-General, is responsible for criminal prosecutions by the state. The State Attorney is the lawyer who represents the state in civil actions (where the state is suing or being sued).

Provincial divisions

There are at the moment thirteen High Courts. The Renaming of High Courts Act, 2008 replaced the old apartheid-era names of the divisions. When the rationalisation of the legal system is completed by the passage of the Superior Courts Bill, the multiple courts in provinces that have them will be merged into "seats" of a single court. The exception to this is Gauteng, in which the separate North and South Gauteng High Courts will remain, due to the high number of cases generated by the presence of the national government in Pretoria (North Gauteng) and the country's commercial hub in Johannesburg (South Gauteng).

The present thirteen High Courts are:

Province Court Previous name
Eastern Cape Eastern Cape High Court, Bhisho Ciskei Division
Eastern Cape High Court, Grahamstown Eastern Cape Division
Eastern Cape High Court, Mthatha Transkei Division
Eastern Cape High Court, Port Elizabeth South-Eastern Cape Local Division
Free State Free State High Court, Bloemfontein Orange Free State Division
KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal High Court, Durban Durban and Coast Local Division
KwaZulu-Natal High Court, Pietermaritzburg Natal Provincial Division
Gauteng North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria Transvaal Provincial Division
South Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg Witwatersrand Local Division
Limpopo Limpopo High Court, Thohoyandou Venda Division
North West North West High Court, Mafikeng Bophuthatswana Division
Northern Cape Northern Cape High Court, Kimberley Northern Cape Division
Western Cape Western Cape High Court, Cape Town Cape of Good Hope Provincial Division

(The province of Mpumalanga currently has no High Court and falls within the jurisdiction of the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.)

Circuit Court

Circuit Courts are also part of the High Court. They sit at least twice a year, moving around to serve more rural areas.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Courts of South Africa — South Africa This article is part of the series: Politics and government of South Africa …   Wikipedia

  • High Court of South Africa — The High Court of South Africa is a court of law in South Africa. The court, when constituted in 1994, inherited the jurisdiction of the provincial and local divisions of the Supreme Court of South Africa that was formally abolished following the …   Wikipedia

  • Magistrates' Courts of South Africa — South Africa This article is part of the series: Politics and government of South Africa …   Wikipedia

  • Constitutional Court of South Africa — Constitutional Court building Established 1994 Jurisdiction …   Wikipedia

  • Chief Justice of South Africa — Incumbent Mogoeng Mogoeng since 8 September 2011 Style The Honourable …   Wikipedia

  • South Africa — Republic of, a country in S Africa; member of the Commonwealth of Nations until 1961. 42,327,458; 472,000 sq. mi. (1,222,480 sq. km). Capitals: Pretoria and Cape Town. Formerly, Union of South Africa. * * * South Africa Introduction South Africa… …   Universalium

  • South Africa — This article is about the modern country. For other uses, see South Africa (disambiguation). Republic of South Africa …   Wikipedia

  • South Africa under apartheid — Apartheid (meaning separateness in Afrikaans, cognate to English apart and ) was a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government of South Africa between 1948 and 1990. Apartheid had its roots in the history of… …   Wikipedia

  • South Africa — <p></p> <p></p> Introduction ::South Africa <p></p> Background: <p></p> Dutch traders landed at the southern tip of modern day South Africa in 1652 and established a stopover point on the spice… …   The World Factbook

  • Customary law in South Africa — South African customary law refers to that usually uncodified legal system developed and practiced by the indigenous communities of South Africa. Customary law has been defined as an established system of immemorial rules [...] evolved from the… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”