South Africans who cannot afford legal representation have been dealt a blow as looming budget cuts force Legal Aid SA to scale back on assisting the poor.
Legal Aid SA‚ which provides legal advice and representation to over 700 000 people annually, will have its budget slashed by R503 million over the next three years.
Legal Aid SA spokesperson, Victor Mfafathu Shabangu says the impact of these cuts will mean Legal Aid will have to prioritize matters that they need to handle due to the budget cuts.
He says: “What it also means is our staff numbers would have been reduced and that would affect the service deliveries for people. If the budget cuts continue at 5% per year for the next three years, we will lose R503 million and then we will have to go towards staff consideration and retrench about 10% of our total staff.”
