Issued by: Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development
21 November 2000
In the interest of justice and the people who may be affected by the judgement of the High Court in the case of Moseneke and Others v The Master, the following should be stated in respect of a report in the Sunday Times of 19 November 2000 with the heading "Apartheid Law "has value' says Maduna".
Inasmuch as the heading of the report may create the impression that the Minister or any member of the management of his Department favours discriminatory legislation, it is stated unequivocally that this is not the case. The Minister has no doubt that the current legislation providing for the status of Black persons to be dealt with differently to that of others, is unconstitutional. The only question is how one should deal with the administration of black estates until such time as new legislation can be put into place.
The article has misinformed the public by alleging that the Minister is opposing the legal action brought by the Moseneke family regarding the estate of the late Mr S S J Moseneke. The relief sought by the Moseneke family was to declare administrative action, ie the refusal of the Master of the High Court to deal with the said estate, unconstitutional. The High Court, however, saw fit not only to order the Master to deal with the estate, but also to declare the regulations in terms of which Magistrates are allowed to deal with estates of deceased black persons unconstitutional, thereby depriving thousands of people of an accessible and less costly alternative to the administration of deceased estates by the Master of the High Court. The order of the High Court, if unchallenged, would in fact leave black people, including the Moseneke family, without any statutory and legal means of distributing the estates of deceased relatives.
It is this order that is brought before the constitutional court by way of appeal in order to enable the Minister to complete a process of orderly transition to a system in terms of which no distinction based on race will be made between procedures for distribution of deceased estates. The matter is in the process of being thoroughly considered by the South African Law Commission. The Commission's recommendations are expected to entail substantial legislative and administrative reform, which cannot be effected overnight.
The report that the Minister sees, "value in the Apartheid Law" is therefore a complete fabrication.
Issued by Paul Setsetse on behalf of Dr Maduna
Pretoria
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