Let me proceed as you directed and say that the Portfolio Committee on Justice had stakeholders on the situation of legal aid in the country and engaged with the inputs that were made. These inputs were very helpful to the committee. Having heard them and considered those inputs, we came to the conclusion that the Legal Aid Bill that was before us should be adopted as a Bill that would establish an institution called Legal Aid South Africa.
So, it establishes an entity, an institution that will have a board and a CEO. Therefore we also looked at the scope of the purpose of that Bill and came to the determination, as the committee, without exception, that there is an area that needs to be covered by this Bill, namely, the provision of legal aid, legal advice, legal education as well as information.
We noted, as the committee, without exception, that there is an area where justice is provided by paralegals and legal advice centres that are not funded under the current legislation, and decided that it would be necessary for us to consider coming up with legislation that would address that area. And we agreed as committee, without any dissension, that we should urgently bring about legislation to deal with the area of paralegals and community advice centres.
So, I propose that that committee report, which was adopted unanimously, be adopted by this House. I thank you.