Hon Chairperson, the ACDP supports this Bill. Legal Aid South Africa is an exemplary institution in South Africa and we yet again wish to commend Judge President Mlambo and his team for being world leaders in the provision of legal aid.
The Bill seeks to take Legal Aid South Africa to a higher level by establishing a national public entity independently governed by a board of directors. There is a new provision that will enable it also to conduct public awareness programmes concerning legal rights and obligations.
This is very important as there are increasing incidents of communities taking the law into their own hands in defence of victims of crime. They believe that these victims have had their rights disregarded in favour of criminals and they believe that those criminals are receiving better treatment.
We in the Justice committee believe that this is a consequence of a perceived uneven implementation of sections 34 and 35 of the Constitution, which deal with the rights of arrested and detained members. We say that this imbalance appears to have skewed the scale in favour of accused persons, while seemingly disregarding the rights and needs of victims of crime.
While part of the solution lies in increasing access to legal aid for civil matters and public interest law, as pointed out by the hon Dr Motshekga, the ACDP believes we again need to look at compensation for the victims of crime.
We already have sections 297 and 300 of the Criminal Procedure Act. There is compensation for victims of human trafficking, and we have the Criminal Assets Recovery Account, an account for the Asset Forfeiture Unit. However, the question is: How often are these provisions applied in court?
In addition to these provisions, the ACDP believes that we should think about and debate again the issue of a fund for victims of violent crime, similar to that in other countries. There was support in principle when this proposal was made by the hon Dianne Kohler-Barnard in a Private Members' Bill in 2007, but the feeling then was that the Bill was premature. Should Parliament not be reconsidering this issue in view of the concerns expressed by many members of communities, namely that the scales of justice are in favour of the criminals?
Will this not balance the scales? We in the ACDP believe so. The ACDP also had initial reservations about the board and its composition, and after hearing compelling arguments by the Deputy Minister, John Jeffery, as well as Judge President Mlambo, who argued that the requirement for organised members from the organised professions is no longer necessary, we agreed to the composition of that Bill as it results in cost-saving in this regard.
So, the ACDP will support this Bill. It is also noteworthy that this Bill was accepted by all parties in the Justice portfolio committee. It is the first Bill that was done by the Justice portfolio committee, and we trust that this will be a way forward so that we can find ourselves and parties across political perspectives, and reach consensus on issues in the Justice portfolio committee. I thank you. [Applause.]