Courts in South Africa

South Africa's court system has three broad layers. At the top sit two apex courts - the Constitutional Court, the final word on constitutional matters, and the Supreme Court of Appeal, the final court of appeal for almost everything else. Below them, nine High Court divisions carry general civil and criminal jurisdiction, each covering a province and sitting at a main seat and, in several provinces, additional local seats. Below the High Courts, magistrate's courts and Regional Courts handle the large majority of the country's day-to-day criminal trials, civil claims, maintenance applications and small claims - most South Africans who ever appear in court do so here, not at a High Court.

Alongside that hierarchy, a small number of specialist bodies hear one category of matter each: the Labour Court and Labour Appeal Court for employment law, the CCMA (a statutory commission, not a court) for most individual dismissal disputes, and specialised courts - the Land Court, the Competition Appeal Court, the Tax Court and the Electoral Court - each created by its own statute. The court listings below give each court's address, phone number where one is on file, and the matters it hears, sourced from the Department of Justice, the Office of the Chief Justice, and each body's own official contact page - see each court's page for its specific sources.