The Johannesburg Master’s Office is the one office where you should telephone before travelling, without exception. The department publishes public office hours for every other Master’s Office in the country but not for Johannesburg, so there is no published time at which the public counter is known to be open. Ringing first is the only way to establish that. There is a second reason to phone rather than assume: Gauteng has two Master’s offices, Johannesburg and Pretoria, and an estate belongs to whichever has jurisdiction over where the deceased was living in the twelve months before death. Being closer to one of them is irrelevant. Get both of those settled on the telephone — the office is open on three separate numbers — and a first visit becomes productive rather than exploratory.
Official task and support route
- Telephone: 011 429 8000, 011 429 1001 or 011 429 8004 — three lines into the same office, so try each before concluding it cannot be reached
- Physical address: Hollard Building, No 66 Marshall Street, corner of Pixley ka Isaka Seme Street and Marshall Street, Johannesburg. Pixley ka Isaka Seme Street is the former Sauer Street, and older documents still use that name.
- Postal address: Private Bag X5, Marshalltown, 2107
- Public office hours: not published by the department for this office. Confirm by telephone before travelling.
- Email: only the head of office’s personal address is published rather than a general office mailbox, so the telephone lines are the practical route.
What you need before contacting
- The deceased’s address history for the twelve months before death, which decides whether this office or Pretoria takes the estate.
- The will, or confirmation that none exists. Without a valid will the estate devolves under the Intestate Succession Act 81 of 1987; the administration procedure itself is prescribed by the Administration of Estates Act 66 of 1965.
- Original estate documents and your identity document.
- If the deceased lived outside South Africa but left property or a will here, the estate may be reported to any Master, provided it goes to only one — and an affidavit confirming that letters of executorship have not already been granted elsewhere must accompany the documents.
Step-by-step contact process
- Telephone first and establish two things: that Johannesburg has jurisdiction, and when the public counter is open.
- Ask whether the estate can be reported through the department’s online registration system, which has operated at Master’s offices since 10 October 2023.
- If the answer is Pretoria rather than Johannesburg, note that the Pretoria office moved to 351 Francis Baard Street on 1 June 2026, so an older address for it is wrong.
- Where travelling into the Johannesburg CBD is impractical, lodge at your nearest Magistrate’s Office — every one has been a designated service point for the Master since 5 December 2002.
- Keep the estate reference number issued to you; nothing can be traced afterwards without it.
There is a reason not to delay. At death the estate freezes: no one may withdraw from the deceased’s bank accounts or deal with estate assets without the Master’s authority, and a joint estate freezes as well where the marriage was in community of property.
Escalation route
Take a complaint through this office before taking it anywhere else, in the department’s stated order: the Assistant Master dealing with the estate, then the Deputy Master, then the Head of Office. The Office of the Chief Master on 012 406 4804 is the step after those three, and it publishes a named complaints management contact. Because the ladder is internal to the office holding the file, you need the estate reference number before any of it functions.
Sources
The telephone numbers, addresses, legislation references, online registration date and escalation sequence on this page were read from the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development’s official Master contacts and deceased estates pages at justice.gov.za on 30 August 2026. The absence of published public office hours for Johannesburg reflects that source as read on that date. Officials’ personal email addresses are not reproduced. The department warns that chiefmaster.co.za is not an official Master’s website.