Kubayi opens National Wills Week in Bushbuckridge as service desks open in all provinces

Anyone in South Africa can walk into a Master of the High Court office or a participating law firm this week and have a will drafted for free, Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi said on Tuesday at the launch of National Wills Week in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga.

National Wills Week runs every September. The campaign gives the public information on why a valid will matters and help with drafting one, and it points people towards legal services they may not know they can reach.

Kubayi used the launch to answer a question she said she had been asked directly. Why, if all a person owns is an RDP house, do they need a will at all?

Her answer was about what happens after the funeral. “When you have passed on, some family members may come and remove your children from the house,” she said.

The minister extended the point to public servants, who she said must also have wills, and to polygamous marriages, where she said a husband with more than one wife must set out how each is provided for after his death.

“So, everyone must have a will. So that when you’ve passed on, your children can benefit,” she said.

The department’s plan

The initiative is part of what the department describes as broader work to improve access to justice, particularly for communities that would not ordinarily be able to pay for private legal assistance.

Service desks will be set up at Master of the High Court offices in every province, staffed with support from legal practitioners and private-practice attorneys. Members of the public will get free help drafting their wills, so that their estates are administered according to their wishes after death.

The campaign also raises awareness of the Master of the High Court’s role in administering deceased estates, a function many families only encounter after a death has already happened.

Kubayi acknowledged that the subject itself keeps people away. “I know that in our cultures, talking about death is a difficult thing. But we have seen the problems that people face so it is time for us to speak about it,” she said.

“Protect the people that you love while you are still alive. Protect your children while you are alive.”

What it means for families

The practical effect of a will is that the person who died decides who gets the house, the savings and the belongings, rather than leaving the family to argue it out or the state to apply the default rules. For a household whose only asset is the home, that is the whole estate, and it is where disputes do the most damage.

Anyone who wants to use the service needs to go to a participating office during the campaign. National Wills Week is observed annually in September, and the department has not said how long the service desks will stay open beyond the campaign period.

This report is based on the government’s own account of the launch, published by SAnews, the South African Government News Agency, which is a summary of the event rather than a full record of the proceedings.

Source: SAnews (South African Government News Agency), National Wills Week launched in Mpumalanga, https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/national-wills-week-launched-mpumalanga