The interim report of government’s committee to rationalise the areas served by SA’s High Courts has recommended that the seat of the Eastern Cape division of the court be moved from Makhanda (previously known as Grahamstown) to the provincial capital, Bhisho. 

A Daily Dispatch report says the committee – headed by retired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke – states that ‘ordinarily the main seat of a provincial division of the High Court is located at the capital of the province. It follows that in the Eastern Cape too, the same situation should prevail.’

The committee has also made important recommendations relating to the jurisdiction of the various local High Courts in the province, correcting anomalies in legal practice which have been in place since the apartheid era.

East London and 10 towns in the former ‘white corridor’ – established to separate the High Court and the people it served in white SA from those in the homelands – will be removed from Makhanda and divided between the Bhisho and Mthatha.

East London, Komga, Qonce, Cathcart, Stutterheim and Komani will be included under Bhisho, while Barkly East, Khowa (formerly Elliot), Indwe, Nqanqarhu (formerly Maclear) and Ugie will fall under Mthatha.

These recommendations affirm a November 2003 jurisdictional notice issued by the government that was never implemented.

Tsomo and Cofimvaba, formerly served by Bhisho, will now fall under Mthatha. 

Matatiele, located in the Eastern Cape but until now served by the KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg) in KZN, will in future also fall within the jurisdiction of Mthatha. Kirkwood and Addo will be included in the Gqeberha’s jurisdiction, while Dikeni (formerly Alice) and Middledrift will now fall under Bhisho.

Full Daily Dispatch report