NINE MEMBERS ADMITTED TO MASTERS’ PANELS IN THE FIRST HALF OF 2026

Nine ABRIPSA members were admitted to Masters' panels in the first half of 2026, with enrolments across the Masters' offices in Johannesburg, Durban and Bloemfontein. Each admission is the product of the ordinary discipline the panels demand: proof of qualification, professional good standing, a clean compliance history and the capacity to furnish security. The Association congratulates the practitioners concerned. In keeping with its practice, individual names are published with members' consent through the Association's own channels, and the admissions will be formally recognised at the Annual General Meeting in November.

What panel admission means

The Masters of the High Court maintain panels of practitioners considered for appointment as trustees and liquidators in the estates falling under each office. Enrolment does not guarantee appointments; it makes them possible. Provisional appointments in sequestrations are made in the Master's discretion under section 18 of the Insolvency Act 24 of 1936, and final appointments are shaped by the requisitions of creditors under the winding-up machinery of the previous Companies Act, preserved in transition. Every appointee must lodge a bond of security before taking office and must maintain it for the life of the estate.

For a newly enrolled practitioner the practical meaning is this: the panel opens the door to a first provisional appointment, and the first appointment — however modest — is where a professional reputation with the Master's office begins.

Panel admission is also where the Association's certification work becomes concrete. Masters' offices look for evidence of professional standing and conduct history when considering enrolments, and a certificate of good standing issued by a recognised association — backed by a code of professional conduct covering independence, diligence and the handling of trust monies — is part of how a newer practitioner answers that question credibly. These admissions vindicate the development pathway the Association has built: mentorship, CPD and application guidance exist precisely to carry members to this threshold.

Notes for the newly enrolled

• Keep certificates current. Good standing with your primary professional body, and your certificate of good standing from the Association, should be renewed before they are requested, not after.
• Arrange security early. Bond of security facilities take time to establish. A practitioner who cannot furnish security promptly when the Master calls will watch the appointment pass to someone who can.
• Treat modest estates as auditions. Small estates carry the full statutory sequence — notices, meetings, proofs of claims, accounts, distribution — and they are where the Master's office forms its view of your work.
• Answer the Master quickly. Requisitions, queries and reporting deadlines are the currency of trust between a practitioner and the office. Slow correspondence is remembered.
• Use the Association. Senior members have walked this road. The mentorship programme, the CPD calendar and the members' directory exist precisely so that no newly enrolled practitioner administers a first estate unsupported.

Why nine matters

The Association does not publish appointment statistics it cannot verify, and it declines to dress progress in invented numbers. But the direction is plain. Panel representation is the pipeline through which appointments, experience and seniority flow, and the Association's members now sit on panels serving Masters' offices across the country — Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Mafikeng among them. Every additional enrolment widens the base from which the next generation of senior practitioners will come, and strengthens the case the Association is pressing for a binding transformation framework in appointments.

The Association thanks the Masters' offices concerned for their engagement with its members' applications. Members admitted to panels during the second half of the year are asked to notify the secretariat at info@abripsa.org.za so that their admissions can be recognised at the AGM, and practitioners preparing panel applications are encouraged to contact the Association for guidance through the contact page.