Free wills drafted at Legal Aid offices until Friday

SABC News reports that South Africans can have a will drafted free of charge this week, with attorneys and Legal Aid offices taking the public from 14 to 18 September. The report is here.

National Wills Week is a joint annual project of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, the Law Society of South Africa, Legal Aid South Africa and other stakeholders. Legal practitioners volunteer their time during the week to advise on estate planning and to draw up wills at no cost, and members of the public may walk into a participating attorney’s office or a Legal Aid office to use the service.

The case for doing it now

Phumelele Shamase, a senior official at the Master of the Durban High Court, says a will is not a document for wealthy people only. Anyone who owns something of value and has people depending on them should have one, she said.

“It gives one power in order to make decisions as to what happens to your assets when you die,” she said. “You don’t have to have lots and lots of money or to be a person that is rich, but if you have something that is important and dear to you, you need to help yourself by drafting a will in order to make sure the people that you want to inherit your assets, they can do so when you die.”

That covers more households than the phrase “estate planning” suggests. A family home in a township, a spaza that trades from the front room, a taxi, a savings policy, a piece of land in the Eastern Cape held under a family name, livestock, a burial society payout, tools of a trade. Under South African law these are assets, and the law decides who gets them when the owner dies without leaving instructions.

What happens when there is no will

Where a person dies intestate, the Intestate Succession Act sets out who inherits, working through spouses, children and blood relatives in a fixed order. The family does not choose. The Master of the High Court applies the formula.

Shamase said that outcome is often not the one the family wanted, and that it produces disputes. Relatives who believe they should have inherited more contest the division, and the winding up of the estate takes longer while they do. With a valid will, the executor knows what the deceased wanted and the heirs know where they stand, which shortens the process for everyone.

A document that is quick to fix and slow to fix afterwards

The difficulty with a will is that the mistake is discovered at the worst possible moment, when the person who could correct it has died. A will that was signed without witnesses, that was never signed at all, that has been superseded by a later one, or that leaves out a child born after it was written, can be challenged or set aside, and the estate then falls back on the intestate rules the testator was trying to avoid.

That is the practical argument for drafting one early rather than late, and for reviewing it when a marriage, a birth, a divorce or a death changes the family. The service on offer this week includes the advice that goes with the drafting, which is the part most people cannot get without paying for it.

Where to go, and what to bring

The participating offices are open for the service from Monday 14 September to Friday 18 September 2026. Readers who intend to use it should bring their identity document and the details of what they own and who they want to benefit, because those are the facts an attorney needs to put a will together in a single sitting. Anyone unsure of their nearest participating office can contact Legal Aid South Africa or the Law Society of South Africa, both of which are partners in the programme.

The week closes on Friday. After that, the drafting is no longer free.

Source: SABC News (website). Read the original item.