Newcastle Court Contact Details

Newcastle Magistrate’s Court is on 034 312 1166, with 034 312 1167 and 034 312 1168 as alternatives. It is at 37 Murchison Street, Newcastle, 2940, in KwaZulu-Natal, and its status in the Department of Justice’s own court list is Operational. The town is spelled Newcastle as one word. We read this on justice.gov.za on 24 September 2026.

Newcastle Magistrate’s Court

Telephone	034 312 1166, 034 312 1167 or 034 312 1168
Address	37 Murchison Street, Newcastle, 2940
Province	KwaZulu-Natal
District municipality	Amajuba
Magisterial district	Amajuba, main seat Newcastle
Court type	Magistrate’s Court
Small Claims Court	Yes
Status	Operational

Three lines are published, so if the first is engaged, try 1167 and 1168 before giving up.

Newcastle is the main seat of the Amajuba magisterial district, which is why matters from the surrounding area are heard here.

Charlestown shares the same number

Worth knowing if you have been told to appear at Charlestown rather than Newcastle.

Charlestown Branch Court	034 312 1166, 034 312 1167 or 034 312 1168
Address	Hollard Street, Charlestown, next to the police station
Court type	Branch Court
Small Claims Court	No

Charlestown is a branch court of the same magisterial district and is answered on the same telephone number as Newcastle. So say which of the two you are calling about, because the number alone does not distinguish them.

The practical difference: Charlestown has no Small Claims Court. For a small claim, Newcastle is the court.

Charlestown is about 40 kilometres north of Newcastle towards Volksrust, so the two are not interchangeable in person even though they share a line.

Check before you travel

The Department of Justice publishes something genuinely useful that almost nobody knows about: an Operational Notices page.

It lists courts currently affected by problems with telephones, power and other service disruptions. The department itself asks people to check it before contacting a court.

If the Newcastle numbers are not being answered, check there before assuming the number is wrong. A court with a telephone fault is a common and temporary situation.

Note also that the department publishes no opening hours for individual courts in its list. The columns for hours and services contain internal reference codes rather than readable values, so hours are a question for the court.

Department of Justice services with their own numbers

Several common matters do not go through a court at all, and phoning Newcastle about them means being redirected.

Matter	Contact
Clearing a criminal record, expungements	080 122 9017 or 012 065 5881, expungements@justice.gov.za
Expungement SMS and WhatsApp only	069 018 8212
Deceased estates, trusts, protection orders and maintenance orders, online system	DojDEOnlineSupport@justice.gov.za
Master’s Trust Beneficial Ownership Register	dojtrustonlinesupport@justice.gov.za
National Register for Sex Offenders	nrso@justice.gov.za

Two things about the expungement channels. 069 018 8212 is for SMS and WhatsApp only, and the department states explicitly that it is not for telephone enquiries. And when you email to follow up on an application, quote your identity number, which is what the department asks for.

Protection orders and maintenance are heard at the magistrate’s court, but the online lodging system has its own support address above, which is faster than the court switchboard for a technical problem with a submission.

What we are not publishing

The department’s court list names the Court Manager at each court and publishes their personal cellphone numbers and a personal work mailbox.

We do not republish those. Ask for the Court Manager by title on the court’s own number. The switchboard reaches the same office and survives staff changes.

The full list of magistrate’s courts is published as a downloadable spreadsheet, last dated 21 July 2026, so the details above come from the department’s current published data rather than from a directory.

Sources

• Department of Justice and Constitutional Development lower courts list, published as a spreadsheet on justice.gov.za and dated 21 July 2026, for the Newcastle and Charlestown telephone numbers, addresses, court types, magisterial district, Small Claims Court status and operational status (read 24 September 2026)
• Department of Justice contacts page, for the expungement, online services, trust register and sex offender register contacts and the instruction to quote an identity number; and the lower courts page for the Operational Notices reference (read 24 September 2026)