The Government Printing Works (GPW) can now print all three legal gazettes as it has been mandated, and ordered by the courts, to do.

It has been reported that the SA Restructuring and Insolvency Practitioners Association (Saripa) has welcomed the development, but warned that it will continue to closely monitor GPW.

Executors of deceased estates have been experiencing major delays because of system failures, not only from the GPW but also from the offices of the Master of the High Court and the Department of Home Affairs. 

Moneyweb reports that a simple estate that used to take six to nine months to wind up can now take anything from 18 months to three years.

A day before being dragged back to court for contempt of a 2021 Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) order, the government printers sent a notice to stakeholders saying the ‘e-Gazette re-automation project has completed the automation of all legal gazettes’.

As a result, the gazettes should now be available and accessible to all stakeholders.

As previously reported, Saripa sought an urgent interdict to hold the GPW CEO, the Minister, and the DG of Home Affairs in contempt of court and have them jailed.

The court in 2021 ordered the GPW to fulfil its mandate, which is to ensure that its three legal gazettes (A, B and C) are published every Friday without interruption or delay.

In her answering affidavit, GPW CEO Alinah Fosi said Saripa is ‘always quick to rush to court or threaten court applications whenever there is a failure or delay in publishing legal gazettes, even when it is only a few’.

Fosi said the GPW has made ‘sterling efforts’ to remedy the situation with both short- and long-term solutions. The contempt of court application was heard last Wednesday but was struck from the roll for want of urgency.

Judge Brenda Neukircher held that the application was premature, as the GPW had ‘implemented measures to ensure complete compliance’ by the end of November.

Saripa CEO René Bekker said the judge acknowledged that the GPW was not adhering to its mandate or the 2021 court order, resulting in prejudice to Saripa members and the public.

‘Should further failures occur, our legal advice is to file a supplementary affidavit and enrol the matter for hearing with a request that the matter be referred for oral evidence,’ Bekker said. 

Saripa said there had been a significant decline in service from the GPW since September this year.

Bekker described it as not only ‘unacceptable but also alarming and deeply troubling’. 

Moneyweb notes that the Legal A gazette – which affects the work of Saripa’s 630 insolvency and business rescue practitioners, attorneys, and tax consultants – contains court orders, business notices, general notices, and Insolvency Act notices.

‘The GPW’s failure to fulfil their duties places SA citizens in a precarious situation. Importantly, without the required publications, courts cannot grant sequestration or winding-up orders, as first meetings of creditors cannot be convened, and liquidation and distribution accounts cannot be published,’ Bekker said.

Louis van Vuren, CEO of the Fiduciary Institute of Southern Africa (Fisa), says they are keeping track of complaints from their members.

Complaints are only escalated to the chief master once all internal efforts have been exhausted.

Full Moneyweb report