Pretoria - Legal Aid South Africa has become a symbol of hope to developing countries because of its increasing ability to improve access to justice for the poor.
This is according to the chairperson of Legal Aid South Africa, Judge Dunstan Mlambo, who was briefing Parliament on his organisation's 2009/10 annual report on Wednesday.
He presented an overview of Legal Aid South Africa's performance and its ninth consecutive unqualified audit report to the Parliamentary Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development.
Mlambo said the organisation was sharing the lessons it had learnt on how to improve access to justice with other developing countries.
The organisation was also on track to achieve its objectives for the period under review by completing the expansion of its national footprint.
This included the establishment of six new Justice Centres and 27 satellite offices in the past three years, as well as the launch of a client call centre in June 2010.
Mlambo told the committee that one of the challenges Legal Aid South Africa faced was its limited response to civil matters because of financial constraints.
CEO of Legal Aid South Africa, Vidhu Vedalankar, said key programmes had been implemented and delivery increased during the year.
The organisation had delivered legal services in 416 149 new matters, with about seven percent of these being civil legal aid matters. "We also provided an advice service to 211 874 clients," she said.
Vedalankar singled out strong governance and financial management as the organisation's major strengths.
"Our ninth consecutive unqualified audit report from the Auditor-General, together with the fifth year of no matters of emphasis, is testimony to this," she added.
