Legal_Aid_SA_Annual_Report_2017-_2018_F

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
LEGAL AID SOUTH AFRICA INTEGRATED ANNUAL REPORT 2017-2018
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There were unexpected delays in bringing both the
Regulations and Manual into operation by the legislated
deadline of 01 March 2017. The 2014 Legal Aid Guide
therefore remained in operation until it was replaced by
the Legal Aid Regulations (Policy) and Legal Aid Manual
(Procedures), as stipulated in sections 23 and 24 of the
new Legal Aid SA Act, with effect from 22 August 2017.
In compliance with a request from Parliament at the time
when the initial regulations were considered, the Legal
Aid South Africa Means Test has been reviewed by the
Board and recommendations have been sent to the
Minister for amendments to be effected.
These proposed amendments have been tabled in
Parliament for consideration and approval. We anticipate
that the updated Means Test will become operational in
the second half of 2018.
With Part 1 and 2 of Chapter 10 of the Legal Practice Act
having been brought into operation on 1 February 2014,
and the constitution of the Interim Legal Practice Council
in February 2015, the committee has continued with the
development of the relevant substantive recommendations
to the Minister but inevitably an extension of the Council
time periods was required to complete the substantive
recommendations to the Minister. The operationalisation
of the Legal Practice Act is now set for 1 November 2018.
Legal Aid SA is represented on the Interim Legal Practice
Council and is actively contributing to the development of an
independent and unified legal profession that is conscious
of the need for indigent and vulnerable persons to be able
to access justice as contemplated in our Constitution.
As previously mentioned, the Legal Practice Act did not
include the provisions that were contemplated for the
Regulation of Community Based Paralegals. This sector,
which plays an important role in ensuring access to justice
and legal empowerment for indigent and vulnerable
communities, has prepared and submitted proposed
draft legislation to regulate the sector to the Minister of
Justice and Correctional Services who has constituted a
drafting task team to prepare the necessary legislation by
the 2019-2020 financial year.
The adoption of the UN Principles and Guidelines on
access to legal aid in criminal matters continues to
play a critical role internationally to guide sustainable
development. This is paving the way for the development
of legal aid systems and increased access to justice by
indigent persons in all member countries. The inclusion
of access to justice in the UN Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) which includes a set of 17 Sustainable
Development Goals (or Global Goals) to end extreme
poverty and fight injustice and inequality for the next 15
years is focusing efforts, both nationally and internationally,
on measuring the achievement of these goals. These
issues were brought to the fore during the International
Legal Aid Group (ILAG) conference that was co-hosted
by Legal Aid South Africa and the ILAG in Johannesburg
from 14 to 16 June 2017. Many African countries could
for the first time engage with the heads of international
legal aid institutions, academics and policymakers at
this conference, thereby taking forward the experiences
shared at this conference.
SDG 16 Target 16.3 calls upon countries to: Promote the
rule of law at the national and international levels and
ensure equal access to justice for all. The common set
of measures that have been agreed to track progress
towards the goals and monitor the actions taken to
achieve the SDGs are very narrow and focus only on
criminal justice to the exclusion of civil justice.
These measures need to be enhanced, especially at
national level, and some progress has been made in
conjunction with our partners in delineating broader goals
to achieve the goal of ending extreme poverty and to fight
injustice and inequality that pervades in South Africa and
the rest of the world.
Specifically, Statistics South Africa are in the process of
enhancing the Victims of Crime Survey to obtain baseline
information on the legal needs of South Africans and to
whom they turn for assistance when they encounter a
legal problem. We are advised that this revised survey will
be conducted in 2018 and we will give further attention
to this during the coming year, including the setting of
national measures for South Africa to determine our
progress to achieve Target 16.3.
3.4 STRATEGIC OUTCOME ORIENTED GOALS
The strategic outcome orientated goals of Legal Aid
SA are detailed in Part A, Section 3.1 of this Integrated
Annual Report (page 09). Progress made towards
the achievement of the Objectives, Strategies and
Programmes as set out in the Legal Aid SA Strategic
Plan 2015-2020 and Annual Performance Plan 2017-
2018 is reported in Section 4, Performance Information
by Programme.
4. PERFORMANCE INFORMATION BY
PROGRAMME
The 2017-2018 Annual Performance Plan of Legal Aid
South Africa was approved by the Executive Authority,
the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Adv. M
Masutha, MP, on 06 March 2017.
The following are the delivery statistics for the organisation
nationally and per province for the 2017-2018 financial
year and the detailed performance information against
the approved 2017-2018 Annual Performance Plan.