# GazetteSearch

A free, independent site run by Phase Transitions (Pty) Ltd. It is not a government
website and is not part of the Master of the High Court or the Government Printing Works.

Deceased estate notices from the South African Government Gazette: the notice to
creditors (form J193, the estate is opened) and the notice that the liquidation and
distribution account lies for inspection (form J187), from the national gazette's
Legal Notices A. 1,341,488 notices, 1 June 2012 to 16 October 2026. New gazettes are added as they
appear; the date of the newest one held is on every page that says what is held.

A notice appears some weeks or months after a death. A person who died recently is
not here yet.

## Pages

- https://gazettesearch.co.za/surname?name=SURNAME lists every person with that surname, newest gazette
  first, one row per estate. Exact surname, any case.
- https://gazettesearch.co.za/executor?name=EXECUTOR lists every notice published by that executor or
  firm, any spelling the gazette used (the page exists for a firm named on five
  or more estates).
- https://gazettesearch.co.za/office?name=OFFICE lists the notices for a Master's office (johannesburg,
  pretoria, cape town, durban, and the others on /offices).
- https://gazettesearch.co.za/notice/ID is one estate: the person's name, date of birth, date of death,
  estate number, Master's office, executor, and each notice's gazette number and
  date (the gazette is the record; the page links a web search for it).
- https://gazettesearch.co.za/surnames, https://gazettesearch.co.za/executors, https://gazettesearch.co.za/offices and https://gazettesearch.co.za/browse are the
  indexes.

## What is not here

Deaths that were never gazetted (small estates, or not yet), anything before the
first gazette held, wills, death certificates, assets and the contents of the
account. ID numbers, addresses, and the contact details of executors and surviving
spouses are in the gazette PDF and are not shown on these pages. The search page is
for people at a keyboard and is closed to crawlers.

## Source

The notices are printed in the Government Gazette, a public record. Fields are extracted from
the PDF text automatically and can contain errors.
A plain guide to what the notices mean and what happens next: https://gazettesearch.co.za/guide
About: https://gazettesearch.co.za/about. Privacy: https://gazettesearch.co.za/privacy.

## For businesses

Searching is free, one person at a time, for anyone. A business with a whole list
(lost members of a retirement fund, policyholders, clients or testators) can have it
matched in one run, by ID number or by surname and date of birth, and get back which
people have an estate notice, with the estate number, Master's office and executor.
This is for regulated institutions only (banks, insurers, retirement funds, licensed
financial services providers and practising attorneys), and the institution's
registration is checked before the first run. Results within three working days of
receiving the list. Matching runs in the United States (Oregon) under a POPIA operator
agreement, and the list and results are deleted 30 days after delivery. A match on name
alone is a lead to check, not a confirmed match.
Price: R10,000 per list, plus R0.10 per name.
No VAT is charged: Phase Transitions is not registered for VAT. Each run is priced on its own.
This is not a register of deaths: it finds estates advertised in the gazette, with the
executor named, and complements a Home Affairs deceased check rather than replacing it.
Up to 10 people can be checked at once on the page, free. Details: https://gazettesearch.co.za/bulk
Contact: graham@phasetransitions.ai