A year ago, I was told that I would be sued for defamation if I did not delete an article I had published on my blog. I ignored the threat which – as it turns out – was just as empty as I had anticipated. At the time, several people kindly volunteered to provide me with free legal assistance if I got sued. But if I had been sued and had had no assistance, I might well not have been able to afford the legal cost involved.
As an aside, it is not likely that Jooste will be charged in the near future. This is because the Hawks would first have to do a thorough, technically competent investigation to build a case that could be successfully prosecuted by the National Prosecuting Authority . But the Hawks was deliberately hollowed out to protect those in the public and private sector unlawfully benefiting from corruption.
But perhaps because Zuma was spending the money of the people he was said to be serving, and because – as a politician – there is nothing more important for him thanto have to answer for his alleged offences in court, Zuma and his lawyers often pursued hopeless technical legal points to try and drag things out, which allowed him to evade prosecution for the past 14 years.
Improving the quality of legal aid services, and expanding its reach to allow a far wider range of people to benefit from legal aid may improve access to justice but would do very little to undo the system in which the rich and publicly funded get the best legal services, while those who can’t pay get, at best, the bare minimum.