Oudtshoorn Magistrate Court serves the Garden Route magisterial district and sits at 120 St John Street in Oudtshoorn. The Department of Justice publishes a single switchboard for it, running on two lines, and that number covers every service the court offers. There is no separate direct line for maintenance, for small claims or for the sexual offences court, so the switchboard is where every matter starts.
Official contact channels
- Court switchboard: 044 203 6400, with 044 203 6410 as the second line
- Physical address: 120 St John Street, Oudtshoorn, 6620
- Postal address: Private Bag X608, Oudtshoorn, 6620
The department publishes a court manager for Oudtshoorn along with an individual departmental mailbox. That is not reproduced here, because court manager posts move and a message to a departed official does not get redirected. Ask for the court manager by role when the switchboard answers.
One absence matters more than any of the numbers above. The department contact record for this court has a field for a domestic violence after-hours applications number, and for Oudtshoorn it is blank. There is no published after-hours number for a protection order here. Outside court hours, a domestic violence matter goes to the nearest South African Police Service station, which can assist with an urgent protection order application and can contact the magistrate on call.
Services and responsibilities
Oudtshoorn is a fuller-service court than many district offices of its size. The department lists it as providing:
- Criminal cases and civil cases
- Child justice and children matters
- Maintenance
- Domestic violence
- A designated Sexual Offences Court
- A Small Claims Court
- An Equality Court
The last two are worth knowing about because they change what a matter costs. The Small Claims Court hears lower-value civil claims without lawyers, which means no legal fees on either side, and it is the right forum for a debt or a damages claim below the prescribed limit rather than the ordinary civil court. The Equality Court hears complaints of unfair discrimination, harassment and hate speech under equality legislation, and it is also free to approach. Neither requires a lawyer, and asking for the clerk of the relevant court by name when you call is faster than describing the dispute.
Office and address information
The court is at 120 St John Street, Oudtshoorn, in the Garden Route magisterial district, with the sub-district recorded as Oudtshoorn. Post goes to Private Bag X608, Oudtshoorn, 6620, and the department publishes no separate street address for correspondence.
No sitting times or office hours are published in the departmental record. Courts generally open to the public on weekdays during office hours, but roll times, maintenance enquiry hours and small claims sitting dates vary by court and are not published centrally, so confirm on the switchboard before travelling. Bring identification and every document relating to the matter, since a clerk cannot open or advance a file on a description alone.
Applications and escalation
Most applications begin at the counter rather than by phone. Maintenance applications, protection order applications and small claims summonses are all lodged in person with the relevant clerk, and the switchboard exists to tell you which clerk and what to bring rather than to take the application itself.
If a matter stalls, work upward within the court first, from the clerk to the court manager, before going to the department. Two national services run separately from the court and have their own routes: clearing a criminal record is handled by the departmental expungements unit on 080 122 9017 or 012 065 5881, at [email protected], and it also takes messages by SMS and WhatsApp on 069 018 8212. Deceased estates are administered by the Master of the High Court rather than by a magistrate court, and the Master keeps its own separate contact list.
Complaints about the conduct of a magistrate are not a court administration matter at all. Those go to the Magistrates Commission, which is a separate body from the department and deals with judicial conduct rather than with service delivery or delays at the counter.
Sources
- justice.gov.za lower courts contact list, for the switchboard, both addresses, the magisterial district and the full service list
- justice.gov.za contacts page, for the expungements unit numbers and mailbox and for the separate Master and Magistrates Commission routes
All contact details on this page were read from the department own website and verified on 2 September 2026.