Judge warns of police state without adequate legal aid funding

A report in The Mercury says Judge Dunstan Mlambo, who is also Chairman of the Legal Aid Board, was speaking at a national conference in Johannesburg to assess the performance of the Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions). He said that if the constitutional requirements of providing legal representation to ensure a fair trial were not implemented through adequate funding of his board, there could be dire consequences. ‘In the absence of this, we will end up with a police state and one-sided justice system dominated by the prosecution. International experience has shown many examples of such police states where the public fear the very persons who are meant to protect them. To undertake this responsibility to fulfil the mandate of our Constitution, we have to be adequately resourced and capacitated,’ Mlambo said. Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed)