Legal Aid SA on Tuesday announced that about 800 000 poor and vulnerable people were assisted with legal aid services in the 2014/2015 financial year.

“Our core purpose is to fulfil our constitutional mandate and in doing so to have a meaningful impact on the lives of poor and vulnerable persons and ultimately on society, and I am satisfied that we have used our resources efficiently and effectively to achieve this,” Legal Aid SA CEO Vidhu Vedalankar said in a statement.

“We are also pleased that we managed to deliver our programmes within our budget.”

Vedalankar said the organisation spent 98.1% of its R1.638-billion budget allocated for the past year.

Legal Aid SA said it had assisted close to four-million people in the last five years. It said in the tough economic climate they have recorded high performance within a good governance framework to ensure that poor and vulnerable South Africans continue to get access justice.

During the 2014-2015 year, Legal Aid SA provided criminal and civil legal aid services to a total of 769 436 people and of these, 394 172 (about 88%) were for criminal matters and 54 023 (about 12%) for civil legal matters.

During the year under review, the organisation dealt with a total of 30 criminal appeals in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein and achieved successful outcomes for 23 clients, about 77% in these appeals.

The Impact Litigation Unit of Legal Aid SA handled 52 impact matters and recorded a success rate of 89% in eight of the nine matters finalised in the year under review.

“The nature of the impact matters ensure that despite the low volumes, the outcomes impact more broadly than just on the specific clients assisted. These matters ensure that clients’ constitutional rights are enforced or protected and legal precedents impacting widely on our clients’ rights have been achieved,” said Ms Vedalankar.

Legal Aid SA has continued to work within a framework of rigorous financial management and good governance, resulting in its fourteenth (14th) unqualified audit. We are very proud of an award from the Office of the Auditor-General of South Africa commending the organisation’s clean audit status, said Vedalankar.