| 1) |
An executor shall, as soon as may be after the last day of the period specified in the notice referred to in section 29 (1) , but within— |
| b) |
such further period as the Master may in any case allow, |
submit to the Master an account in the prescribed form of the liquidation and distribution of the estate.
| 1A) |
If at any time after the account contemplated in subsection (1) was submitted to the Master, additional assets are found in the estate and the account is not amended in terms of this section so as to provide for the application or distribution of the proceeds of those assets, the executor shall in respect of those assets submit to the Master a supplementary account in the prescribed form. |
| 2) |
The Master may at any time in any case in which he has exercised his powers under paragraph (b) of subsection (1) or in which an executor has funds in hand which ought, in the opinion of the Master, to be distributed or applied towards the payment of debts, direct the executor in writing to submit to him an interim account in the prescribed form within a period specified. |
| 2A) |
The Master may in respect of an account contemplated in subsection (1), (1A) or (2) direct the executor to submit to him within a period determined by him such voucher or vouchers in support of the account or any entry therein as he may require for the purpose of performing his functions in connection with the examination or amendment of the account. |
| 3) |
The executor shall set forth in any interim account all debts due to the estate and still outstanding and all property still unrealized, and the reasons why such debts or property, as the case may be, have not been collected or realized. |
| 4) |
Every executor's account shall, after the Master has examined it, lie open at the office of the Master, and if the deceased was ordinarily resident in any district other than that in which the office of the Master is situate, a duplicate thereof shall lie open at the office of the magistrate of such other district for not less than twenty-one days, for inspection by any person interested in the estate. |
| a) |
The executor shall give notice that the account will be so open for inspection by advertisement in the Gazette and in one or more newspapers circulating in the district in which the deceased was ordinarily resident at the time of his death and, if at any time within the period of twelve months immediately preceding the date of his death he was so resident in any other district, also in one or more newspapers circulating in that other district, and shall state in the notice the period during which and the place at which the account will lie open for inspection. |
| b) |
If, in the case of a supplementary account contemplated in subsection (1A), the value of the assets concerned is in the opinion of the Master too small to justify the cost of publication of the notices contemplated in paragraph (a) of this subsection, that paragraph shall not apply in respect of such supplementary account and the Master may, if he finds it necessary, direct the executor to give notice, in such manner and to such persons as the Master may determine, of the place at which and the period during which the account will lie open for inspection in terms of subsection (4). |
| 6) |
The magistrate shall cause to be affixed in some public place in or about his office, a list of all such accounts lodged in his office, showing the date on which each such account will be transmitted to the Master, and, upon the expiry of the period allowed for inspection, shall endorse on each account his certificate that the account has lain open in his office for inspection in accordance with this section and transmit the account to the Master. |
| 7) |
Any person interested in the estate may at any time before the expiry of the period allowed for inspection lodge with the Master in duplicate any objection, with the reasons therefor, to any such account and the Master shall deliver or transmit by registered post to the executor a copy of any such objection together with copies of any documents which such person may have submitted to the Master in support thereof. |
| 8) |
The executor shall, within fourteen days after receipt by him of the copy of the objection, transmit two copies of his comments thereon to the Master. |
| 9) |
If, after consideration of such objection, the comments of the executor and such further particulars as the Master may require, the Master is of opinion that such objection is well-founded or if, apart from any objection, he is of opinion that the account is in any respect incorrect and should be amended, he may direct the executor to amend the account or may give such other direction in connection therewith as he may think fit. |
| 10) |
Any person aggrieved by any such direction of the Master or by a refusal of the Master to sustain an objection so lodged, may apply by motion to the Court within thirty days after the date of such direction or refusal or within such further period as the Court may allow, for an order to set aside the Master's decision and the Court may make such order as it may think fit. |
| 11) |
If any such direction affects the interests of a person who has not lodged an objection and the account is amended, the account as so amended shall, unless the said person consents in writing to the account being acted upon, again lie open for inspection in the manner and with the notice and subject to the remedies hereinbefore provided. |
| 12) |
When an account has lain open for inspection as provided in this section and— |
| a) |
no objection has been lodged; or |
| b) |
an objection has been lodged and the account has been amended in accordance with the Master's direction and has again lain open for inspection, if necessary, as provided in sub-section(11), and no application has been made to the Court within the period referred to in sub-section (10) to set aside the Master's decision; or |
| c) |
an objection has been lodged but withdrawn, or has not been sustained and no such application has been made to the Court within the said period, |
the executor shall forthwith pay the creditors and distribute the estate among the heirs in accordance with the account, lodge with the Master the receipts and acquittances of such creditors and heirs and produce to the Master the deeds of registration relating to such distribution, or lodge with the Master a certificate by the registration officer or a conveyancer specifying the registrations which have been effected by the executor: Provided that an affidavit by the executor in which he or she declares that a creditor was paid or that an heir received his or her share in accordance with the account, may be accepted by the Master in lieu of any such receipt or acquittance.
[Section 28(12) substituted by section 5 of the Judicial Matters Amendment Act 2023, Notice No. 4597, GG50430, dated 3 April 2024]
| 13) |
The executor shall not later than two months after the estate has become distributable in terms of sub-section (12), pay to the Master for deposit in the guardian's fund on behalf of the persons entitled thereto, all moneys which he has for any reason been unable to distribute in accordance with the account. |
Administration of Estates Act, 1965
