The Impact of Technology on Testate Succession in South Africa

One advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) era is the expedient exchange of goods and services via the Internet. The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (ECTA) plays a critical role in regulating transactions and communications. However, ECTA excludes the provisions of the Wills Act 7 of 1953 from its ambit. Inevitably, this creates difficulties for the recognition and/or validity of electronic wills in South Africa. If technology is not acknowledged and applied in the space of testate succession, enhanced 4IR innovations threaten the Wills Act with obsolescence. We argue in this contribution that the rapid changes brought about by the 4IR and the exclusion of the Wills Act from the ambit of ECTA mean that testate succession is not responding to the current impact of technology on people. In this contribution we seek to create a synergy between the two statutes with a view to ensuring the relevance of the Wills Act in the 4IR. Ultimately we propose that both statutes be amended to cater for electronic wills. This can be achieved by combining the use of digital signatures and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology. In reaching this conclusion we draw some lessons from the statutory changes in the United States of America (USA).