A High Court was established for the
South African Republic (the Transvaal Republic) in 1877, while the Witwatersrand gold fields were visited by a
circuit court subordinate to the High Court. Both courts ceased to exist as a result of the British victory in the
Second Anglo-Boer War. In 1902, two superior courts were established for the new
Transvaal Colony: the Supreme Court of the Transvaal in Pretoria, and subordinate to it the High Court of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. On the creation of the
Union of South Africa these courts became the Transvaal Provincial Division and the Witwatersrand Local Division, respectively, of the
Supreme Court of South Africa. The Transvaal Provincial Division's area of jurisdiction was reduced in 1977 and 1979 when
Bophuthatswana and
Venda became nominally independent and established their own supreme courts. When the current
Constitution of South Africa came into force in 1997 the Transvaal and Witwatersrand Divisions of the Supreme Court of South Africa and the Supreme Courts of Bophuthatswana and Venda all became High Courts. In 2001 some districts in
North West were removed from the jurisdiction of the Transvaal Division and placed under the
Bophuthatswana Division in
Mafikeng. In 2009 the Transvaal and Witwatersrand divisions were renamed the North Gauteng and South Gauteng High Courts, respectively. In 2013, in the restructuring brought about by the
Superior Courts Act, the courts became two seats of a single Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa. ==Seats==