Durban — Legal Aid South Africa’s budget has been reduced by 15% in the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) cycle 2021/22–2024/25.
This is expected to reduce compensation to employees by R125 million and goods and services expenditure by R227.6m during this period, stated a report of Legal Aid SA during the Annual Performance Report 2021/2022 presentation to the portfolio committee on justice and correctional services.
Stringent mitigating measures continue to be implemented to absorb these reductions; however, this is not sustainable in the long term.
Legal Aid SA was allocated a budget of R2.132 billion. An additional grant received by Legal Aid SA amounting to R33m relates to the Land Rights Management Unit (LRMU), received from the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development. The LRMU provides legal representation and advice services in land disputes for those who cannot afford legal representation.
The report stated that Legal Aid SA assisted 11 686 children in 2021/2022 – 6 935 children in conflict with the law and 4 751 children involved in civil matters. A total of 487 552 were people provided with legal aid in 2021/2022 and 132 411 people were provided with legal advice. They dealt with 40 143 new civil matters and 314 998 new criminal matters.
In Strategic Litigation Matters, a success rate of 93% was achieved for the 13 finalised matters with an outcome. Twelve had a positive outcome and one had a negative outcome.
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