The Legal Status of Electronic Wills in Tanzania and Lessons from South Africa

Tanzanian succession law was built for paper. The Indian Succession Act 1865, as applied in Tanzania, requires a will to be signed by the testator and attested by two witnesses, and it assumes a physical document. The Electronic Transactions Act 2015 recognizes electronic records and signatures in general terms but is silent on wills. This leaves testators, advocates, probate officers and courts without clear guidance on whether a will made, signed, witnessed or stored electronically can be valid. This article uses a qualitative doctrinal and comparative method to examine the problem against the law of South Africa. South Africa expressly excludes wills from its electronic transactions statute, yet its courts have used the condonation power in section 2(3) of the Wills Act 7 of 1953 to accept electronic documents as wills where the deceased’s intention is proved. The article finds that Tanzanian law does not clearly regulate electronic wills and offers no mechanism for rescuing a genuine electronic will that fails the traditional formalities. It argues that the most transferable South African lesson is structural: a strict formal code can coexist with an evidence-based remedial discretion. It recommends legislative, institutional and professional reforms adapted to Tanzania’s own structures.