Legal Aid SA staff march to Parliament over crushing workloads and frozen vacancies

Legal Aid South Africa employees and members of the South African Lawyers and Allied Workers Union (SALAWU) marched to Parliament on Wednesday, warning that heavy caseloads, frozen vacancies and unresolved labour disputes were undermining the organisation’s ability to deliver quality legal representation to poor and vulnerable people.

March and memorandum

The group, which marched from 11am to hand over a memorandum to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development, said their protest raised multiple workplace issues beyond pay, including working conditions, understaffing, retirement age and benefits.

Union concerns and examples of workload pressure

SALAWU 2nd General Deputy Secretary Khayalethu Sibeko described the protest as being about more than salaries and said long-standing grievances had not been addressed by the Legal Aid SA board.

“Legal Aid employees are protesting, among others, because of the conditions of employment,”

Sibeko said the union wants the retirement age at Legal Aid reversed from 60 to 65 and that the dispute had been referred to the CCMA, where certificates of non-resolution were issued. He also said that since the appointment of a new board in March 2024, vacancies had been frozen and the workload had increased.

Giving specific examples, the union said some candidate legal practitioners were carrying about 15 court files a day while still in training and that in criminal and civil work the memorandum stated candidates were attending court with more than eight trials and other matters per day and civil practitioners were carrying more than 200 civil files.

“You will find some candidate legal practitioners carry to court about 15 files per day per lawyer. About eight are ready for trial, and about four are for formal bail applications. How do you expect that person to deliver quality legal representation?”

Impact on practitioners and the institution

The memorandum lodged by SALAWU says vacant posts have been frozen following resignations, deaths, retirements and dismissals, with remaining employees absorbing the additional work. The union argued this was affecting employee well-being, compromising work quality and negatively affecting Legal Aid SA’s constitutional mandate.

Sibeko said the pressure had taken an emotional toll on staff and that some practitioners were resigning because of workload. He described the experience of appearing in court with heavy files against better-resourced prosecution teams as demoralising.

“As a Legal Aid practitioner, it is so disheartening because you have all these case files and you are up against two or three prosecutors of the State and are unable to keep up,”

Demands and next steps

SALAWU demanded in its memorandum the immediate reversal of the retirement age from 60 to 65, proper consultation with employees, non-interference in incentive performance bonuses, salary benchmarking, the filling of vacant posts, and a reasonable allocation of work to legal and support staff. The union gave Parliament 10 days to respond to its demands.

The union also accused the Legal Aid SA board of failing to act and called for the resignation of the board or its chairperson, or for ministerial intervention.

Response status

Legal Aid SA acknowledged receipt of an enquiry but had not responded by the time of publication.