Legal aid assistance to Ms Skwatsha
Media Response

24 July 2007
LEGAL-AID ASSISTANCE TO MS SKWATSHA

In response to the recent questions forwarded to Legal Aid Board with regards to the Skwatsha matter, the Legal Aid Board would like to clarify its role in the matter.

The primary responsibility of the Legal Aid Board is to protect and defend human rights in order to ensure justice for all members of our society. The Legal Aid Board does this in terms of our Constitution, which is widely regarded as one of the most progressive Constitutions in the world. In terms of our Constitution, everybody is entitled to a fair trial. In providing legal assistance to people there are only three considerations:
• Can the accused afford cost of legal representation
• Seriousness of the case – is accused likely to be sentenced to three months or longer
• Would there be substantial injustice if legal representation was not provided.

In this case the accused, Ms Skwatsha, appeared twice in court on a criminal charge without representation before she applied for legal aid. Having considered various factors including the seriousness of the case, the means of the applicant, in this case indicated as unemployed with no income and assets, the LAB decided to grant legal aid. The applicant declared that the information she provided was a true reflection of her position. It is noted that there is no obligation in the law for a spouse to provide assistance to the other spouse in criminal matters and hence the Legal Aid Board’s assessment of means as per its policy set out in the Legal Aid Guide does not require the consideration of the income of the spouse of the applicant for legal aid.

Since the applicant responded in the negative on affordability and ownership of assets, and since she was applying for legal aid on a criminal matter, legal aid was granted. If the matter was a civil matter, the LAB would have included in the means test a consideration of the income of the household.

This matter has been dealt with in accordance with Legal Aid Board policies and procedures and the applicant has been treated the same as any other applicant for legal aid. The matter has been finalised.

This matter has subsequently been queried by the media. If an allegation of fraud/ abuse of legal aid is reported, the Justice Centre will provide a copy of the report on the suspected fraud/abuse to the legal aid applicant or recipient who in turn will be given two weeks to respond. This recipient has to be given the right to respond to this allegation.

The circumstances and cost of a matter will be taken into account by the Legal Aid Board in deciding on action or criminal prosecution required. The matter reported on did not require extensive research and the current cost for such matters done in a district magistrate’s court by our in-house lawyer amounts to approximately R600.

The Legal Aid Board, just like in other deserving matters, went on record for the accused, with integrity and to the best of our ability in the interests of defending a person in need of legal aid.


Mr Jerry Makokoane
Chief Operations Officer
Legal Aid Board