Hi there,

Hope all is well. I have a couple of questions that i need some clarity on, regarding my late mothers estate.

Some Background:

I am currently residing in Cape Town with my daughter and her father. My mom passed away in June of 2018, at her home in Johannesburg. She has 2 children, myself (23 this year) and an older brother(29 this year), and was never married. At the time of her passing, there was no Will that had her signature on it, and so no executor appointed. We then went to visit the Master's office in Pretoria, and were told we need to find a lawyer, which we then got a refferal for. We were told that if we both were to be executor, we would then both need to be physically present to sign any documentation, which would require me to travel between the two cities constantly. We then agreed that he would be executor, but any information or documents that she had would need to be communicated with me as well. My brother is a recovering addict, and a couple of months after he signed as executor, he relapsed. He has since been in and out of rehab, and because of this has not been able to fulfill any of his duties. It is going on 2 years now, and i feel the lawyer is dragging this out. She has not contacted me once, and it is impossible for me to get ahold of her. When i send her emails, she only responds to a select few, and the response comes from her secretary. i am constantly having to deal with a sectretary, and since the time she has been working with us, i have only spoken to her thrice, the rest of the correspondence is done through her receptionist. 

Now my questions are:

1. Is there any way possible that i can get my brother to sign over executorship over to me, because he is not able to fullfil all his duties?

2.Is it possible to get a lawyer in Cape Town to take the case from her? and if so, would she still need to be paid? (we have been finding more information, and stuff by ourselves, and are not getting much from her)

Any kind of guidance or advice will be  MUCH appreciated.

Yasmeen