Legal Aid SA helps more people access justice

Legal Aid South Africa CEO Vidhu Vedalankar says the statutory body has helped more South Africans with legal representation over the financial year that ended 31 March.

Legal advice and assistance was provided in 749 619 matters, 441 056 of which were new legal matters and 308 563 were advice matters.

“I am happy to say that Legal Aid is presenting a report which is positive. It is a report that reflects that we have delivered on our business plan for the financial 2015/ 16…

We reached 750 000 South Africans… so many more people were able to access justice.

"We continue to deliver on our constitutional mandate to increase access to justice in South Africa and that is a good news story,” Vedalankar said.

Briefing the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correc- tional Services on Wednesday, Vedalankar said Legal Aid has obtained its 15th unqualified audit.

While Legal Aid South Africa’s mandate is to assist people who cannot afford legal services, it also tries to work on cases that have the potential to change the lives of the broader society, as opposed to helping just the one person represented in a specific matter.

This means Legal Aid has taken up cases that also set a precedent, which falls under the Legal Aid’s Impact Litigation Programme.

Vedalankar said over the year under review, Legal Aid took on 15 new Impact Litigation matters and a 93% success rate was achieved for the 14 matters that were finalised.

She said Legal Aid also assisted children in 17 701 criminal and civil matters.

– SAnews.gov.za