25/08/2026
Minister orders probe of Master’s Office dysfunction
Publish date: 24 August 2026
Issue Number: 6436
Diary: Legalbrief Today
Category: General
On an unannounced oversight visit to the Pretoria Master’s Office, following numerous complaints, Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi saw for herself the dysfunction of its IT system, reports GroundUp. She said the disruption of services at an office that provides ‘critical support to members of the public’ was concerning. She has asked the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and the Hawks to probe the department’s digitisation project. SIU spokesperson Selby Makgotho confirmed the Minister’s referral. The Minister said she expects ‘a thorough account of what transpired with the digitisation project’. ‘Any evidence of misconduct, negligence, corruption or deliberate actions … will be dealt with decisively,’ she said. The digitisation project was meant to speed up and improve services. But it has dragged on for years, remains unfinished, and appears to have had the opposite effect on efficiency.
Kubayi said the project had contributed to service disruptions at courts and Masters’ offices in Gauteng, KZN and the Western Cape. She expressed concern over allegations that the service provider, Veritas Engineering and Project Management Consultants (Pty) Ltd, was ‘denying’ officials access to state records. Veritas systems are implemented across various justice offices within the Western Cape, KZN and Gauteng, including High Courts, Magistrate's Courts, Labour Courts and Masters’ offices. Spokesperson for the Minister, Palesa Rammitlwa, told GroundUp that Veritas sent a letter, apologising for the disruption, blaming ‘instability within the department’s network infrastructure’. She confirmed that ‘access to the Veritas portal has been restored’ and officials are addressing the backlog of transactions. The Department of Justice said the investigation will probe whether the contract gave a private company access to government records, whether government policies and laws were followed, whether the contracts provided value for money, and whether departmental negligence contributed to the collapse of services. Veritas has not commented.
Full GroundUp report
