If there is no Power of Attorney in place and the clients cannot sign in South Africa, there are 2 options for them to follow, i.e. following High Court Rule 63 or obtaining an Apostille.
In terms of High Court Rule 63, documents signed outside South Africa must be signed by the parties at a South African diplomatic/ consular mission (Embassy) or another listed designated official. The document must be authenticated by attaching a certificate thereto which bears the seal of office of such authorised person.
For some neighbouring countries, as well as the UK, a simplified process under Rule 63 is available in that the document can be signed by and attested before a Notary practising as such in that country. The Notary must affix a seal of office to that document.
The second option is for the signatories to sign the documents before a Notary Public in terms of the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents. Both countries must be members of the Convention. This option requires that, once signed by the signatories and Notary, the document must be apostilled by a relevant governmental authority (in that foreign country) which has such powers. The format of the apostille is prescribed in the Convention.
Once the documents have been signed and apostilled or authenticated, as applicable, the original signed documents need to be couriered back to the transferring attorneys for lodgement at the Deeds Office.