Here’s how many defendants in criminal cases required legal aid last year
Legal Aid SA averaged 331 000 new criminal cases a year over the past five years.
In South Africa, over 1,000 defendants in criminal cases require legal aid services each day, according to the 2025-26 annual report presented to the justice and constitutional development portfolio committee. Legal Aid SA's budget for the financial year was R2.8 billion, and 99% of it was spent to assist those who cannot afford legal representation.
The report revealed that 82% of the expenditure was used to compensate 2,530 staff members, while 12% and 2% were allocated to operating and capital expenditure, respectively. Despite budget cuts amounting to R1.1 billion since 2021, Legal Aid SA continued to handle more cases by taking on additional criminal and civil matters. In 2021-22, 487,552 new matters were brought to Legal Aid, with 333,402 criminal cases finalized and 46,620 civil matters concluded.
The annual total of South Africans assisted by Legal Aid amounted to 616,707. New funding models aim to address staff shortages and irregular expenditures, ensuring that commitments to clients and constitutional obligations are met without exceeding institutional capacity.
Written by urgent.news from The Citizen's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
