page_title: Courts of South Africa
section_title: High Court
hierarchical_section_title: Courts of South Africa / High Court
caption_attribution_description: High Court in Johannesburg, South Africa
context_page_description: The courts of South Africa are the civil and criminal courts responsible for the administration of justice in South Africa. They apply the law of South Africa and are established under the Constitution of South Africa or under Acts of the Parliament of South Africa.
  Despite South Africa's division into nine provinces, the country has a single national court system. The courts are funded and supported by the national Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. The ordinary courts are the district and regional magistrates' courts, the provincial divisions of the High Court, and the Supreme Court of Appeal. The Constitutional Court is the highest court for constitutional matters.
  Specialist courts have been established for various matters, including Labour Courts, the Land Claims Court, Special Income Tax Courts, and the Electoral Court. African customary law is administered by chiefs' and headmen's courts, subject to the Council of Traditional Leaders.
context_section_description: The provincial divisions of the High Court of South Africa have general jurisdiction over their defined areas. They hear appeals from the magistrates' courts within their area, and act as a court of first instance for cases outside the jurisdiction of the magistrates' courts. The present divisions of the High Court are:
  The Eastern Cape Division at Grahamstown with local seats at Bhisho, Mthatha and Port Elizabeth
  The Free State Division at Bloemfontein
  The Gauteng Division at Pretoria with a local seat at Johannesburg
  The KwaZulu-Natal Division at Pietermaritzburg with a local seat at Durban
  The Limpopo Division at Polokwane with local seats at Thohoyandou and Lephalale
  The Mpumalanga Division at Mbombela with a local seat at Middelburg
  The North West Division at Mahikeng
  The Northern Cape Division at Kimberley
  The Western Cape Division at Cape Town
  The origins of the High Court lie in the Supreme Courts of the four colonies (the Cape Colony, Transvaal Colony, Natal Colony and Orange River Colony) from which the Union of South Africa was formed; these became provincial divisions of the Supreme Court of South Africa. On receiving nominal independence the bantustans of Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei established their own Supreme Courts; when they were re-integrated into South Africa on 27 April 1994 these courts were given the same status as provincial divisions of the Supreme Court of South Africa.
  The 1996 Constitution renamed the provincial and local divisions of the Supreme Court of South Africa, as well as the bantustan Supreme Courts, to High Courts. Since that time some changes have been made to rationalise the areas of jurisdiction of the courts; the courts have also been renamed in accordance with the names of the new provinces. The Superior Courts Act, 2013 restructured the High Courts into divisions of a single High Court of South Africa, and also provided for the creation of divisions for Limpopo and Mpumalanga, which had previously fallen under the jurisdiction of the Gauteng High Court at Pretoria.
caption: The local seat of the Gauteng Division in Johannesburg
exif: {"Image Make": "PENTAX Corporation", "Image Model": "PENTAX Optio S4", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "ACD Systems Digital Imaging", "Image DateTime": "2007:05:24 22:01:18", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "234", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "31860", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6517", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "31/10", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:05:16 16:04:30", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:05:16 16:04:30", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "16/25", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "14/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "41/5", "EXIF SubSecTime": "984", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "800", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "600", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "31728", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0/0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "49", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "3"}