Most wasted trips to a Master’s Office come down to one thing: turning up in the afternoon. Almost every office closes to the public well before the working day ends, several close at 13h00, and two accept afternoon visitors only for urgent matters by prior appointment. Phone hours follow the same pattern, so a call placed after lunch often rings out at an office that is still working but no longer serving the public. Before you go or dial, you need three things settled — which office has jurisdiction over your matter, what that office’s public hours actually are, and your reference number if a file already exists. This page covers the practical side of reaching an office: hours, walk-in rules, document lodging routes and what to have with you. The office-by-office phone numbers are published separately.
Official task and support route
There are three ways to reach a Master’s Office, and they are not equivalent. You can phone the regional switchboard, which is published for each of the fifteen offices on the department’s Master contacts page. You can attend in person during that office’s public hours. Or, if the office with jurisdiction is far from you, you can use your nearest Magistrate’s Office, which has been a designated service point for the Master since 5 December 2002 — this is the route that saves people in outlying areas a long journey, and it is underused. For trusts specifically, two central mailboxes bypass the regional offices entirely: [email protected] for terminated trusts and [email protected] for dormant ones.
What you need before contacting
Public office hours, as published by the department, differ office by office:
- 08h00–16h00: Bloemfontein and Bhisho — the longest continuous public hours of any office.
- 07h45–16h00: Pietermaritzburg.
- 08h00–14h00: Mbombela.
- 08h00–13h00: Cape Town, Polokwane and Middelburg.
- 07h45–13h00: Durban, Grahamstown (Makhanda) and Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha). Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth both state that afternoon visits between 13h45 and 16h15 are confined to urgent matters and by appointment only, so that staff can process workflow.
- Morning and afternoon sessions: Kimberley (07h45–13h00 and 13h45–16h00), Mthatha (07h45–13h00 and 13h45–16h00), Thohoyandou (07h45–13h00 and 14h00–16h15), and Mahikeng (07h45–13h00 and 14h00–16h15, where the department notes that only members of the public travelling from far and remote areas are assisted after 14h00).
Take your identity document, any reference number already issued, and the original documents relevant to the matter. If a file exists, the reference number is what allows staff to find it — without it the visit usually becomes a request to come back.
Step-by-step contact process
- Establish jurisdiction first. For a deceased estate that is the office covering where the deceased lived in the twelve months before death, not where you live.
- Check that office’s hours in the list above, then phone in the morning rather than the afternoon.
- If the number does not connect, check the department’s operational notices before assuming it has changed. Notices dated 22 July 2026 recorded the telephones at both the Bhisho and Pretoria offices as out of order.
- To lodge documents by courier rather than in person, three offices publish Docex addresses: Durban (Master of the KwaZulu-Natal High Court, DOCEX 218, Durban), Pietermaritzburg (DOCEX 56, Pietermaritzburg) and Grahamstown (Master of the High Court, Docex 7, Grahamstown, 6140).
- If travelling to the correct office is impractical, lodge at your nearest Magistrate’s Office instead.
- Confirm the address before travelling. The Pretoria office moved to 351 Francis Baard Street, Pretoria, 0002 from 1 June 2026, and Kimberley moved to Don Pablo Office Park, 73 George Street, Kimberley, 8301.
Escalation route
Complaints stay inside the office holding your file until that office has been exhausted. Raise the matter with the Assistant Master dealing with it, then the Deputy Master, then the Head of Office. Only after those three does it go to the Office of the Chief Master on 012 406 4804, where the department publishes a named complaints management contact on its Master contacts page. Two practical notes: the department states plainly that you should contact the office where the matter was reported first, and it warns that chiefmaster.co.za is not an official Master’s website — the official pages are on justice.gov.za.
Sources
The public office hours, walk-in restrictions, Docex addresses, relocation dates and operational notices on this page were read from the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development’s official Master of the High Court contacts page at justice.gov.za on 30 August 2026. Nothing has been inferred or taken from a directory. Office hours change, so confirm against justice.gov.za before travelling.