High Court of South Africa

South Africa

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

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

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 post apartheid settlement^{[citation needed]}. High Court divisions have 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 Court divisions 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 Court usually hears any matter involving a person’s status (for example, adoption, insolvency).

Important officers in a High Court Division

Each provincial division of the 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 divisions of the High Court. 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 divisions in provinces that have them will be merged into "seats" of a single provincial division. The exception to this is Gauteng, in which the separate North and South Gauteng divisions 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 divisions of the High Court are:

(The province of Mpumalanga currently has no High Court division 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. They can be contacted through the High Court.