The taxpayer footed the bill for the 177 IFP participants in the Shell House inquest, writes Mungo Soggot
The Legal Aid Board paid almost R10- million for the Inkatha Freedom Party’s legal representation at the Shell House inquest last year – as much as the board’s annual allowance to university legal aid clinics.
The IFP confirmed this week that the 177 applicants who received legal aid in the inquest belonged to the party and were represented by seven legal teams, each with at least an advocate and an attorney.
The board cannot fund political parties. It said it paid applicants in their private capacities.
The inquest, in the Johannesburg High Court, probed the deaths of of 17 people killed in an IFP march on Shell House in March 1994.
The African National Congress did not receive any financial assistance from the board for its legal team. A representative of the ANC’s legal team confirmed the ANC had footed legal bills for all members.
ANC participants in the probe – 13 allegedly involved in the shooting and 30 additional witnesses – were represented by one team of four advocates and two attorneys.
The board said this week it paid the 177 applicants an average of R56 000. Senior legal aid official Peter Brits said the pay-outs ranged from R27 390 to R84 906 a head, stressing the board could not pay for the party or for senior officials who were too wealthy to qualify for the taxpayer’s assistance.
The IFP’s chief whip, Koos van der Merwe, said one of the advocates from the seven teams also represented the party and senior officials who would not have qualified for legal aid.
The taxpayer’s bill for the inquest also included the police bill for two advocates and an attorney, who cannot be funded by the board.
The inquest found that no one could be held criminally liable for the deaths. Judge Robert Nugent rejected most of the evidence presented to the inquest, saying it was unreliable.
The Legal Aid Board, which has an annual budget of R300-million, is due to be revamped by a team of lawyers and interested parties awaiting the go-ahead from Minister of Justice Dullah Omar to transform the legal aid system.
The team has already clashed with the existing board, calling on the chair, Judge Chris Plewman, to resign. Plewman’s term of office expires in September.
One of the changes being proposed is to set up new legal aid clinics countrywide which will be staffed by law graduates, who will be obliged to do a one-year internship.
Tony Richardson, the co-ordinator of the legal aid transformation team, says that the 21 university legal aid clinics in South Africa – which are co-funded by the Legal Aid Board – will probably be expanded as part of the new legal aid system.
Richardson said the Shell House pay-out equalled the amount the board paid these clinics, which struggle to secure other funding.