Parliament, Wednesday, 7 October 2026 – The Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development today engaged with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the Legal Aid South Africa (Legal Aid SA) on their annual performance reports for 2025/26. Both organisations highlighted the high cost of employment, which eats into budgets and, in some instances, constrains their ability to deliver efficiently on their mandates.
Briefings presented to the committee revealed that across these independent state institutions, compensation of employees (CoE) accounts for between 70% and nearly 80% of total annual allocations. The committee heard that while these entities are service- and human capital-intensive – relying heavily on specialised legal, investigative and human rights personnel – the high fixed personnel costs leave limited discretionary funding for core mandates.
The committee heard that Legal Aid SA has stopped further recruitment due to budget cuts, which has had a ripple effect on providing legal services to South Africans in need. Legal Aid SA has maintained an establishment of around 2 530 employees from the approved 2 856 establishment over the medium-term economic framework (MTEF) period. The targeted recruitment rate has been reduced from 90% to 85% of the total staff establishment due to the budget cuts. This has also impacted on the courts that Legal Aid SA can service and has added to the case load per practitioner.
At the SAHRC, personnel expenditure consumes approximately 74.7% (R497.9 million) of the budget over the MTEF period, with CoE projected to grow at an average annual rate of 4.9%. The committee heard that despite a vast mandate and a complement of approximately 200 positions serving a population of 63 million people, compensation of employees is projected to absorb a growing share of a largely flat expenditure ceiling.
Despite severe capacity constraints, the Commission finalised 1 439 complaints in the 2025/26 period – surpassing its target of 1 200 – though technical standardisation of performance indicators remains an audit focus.
Committee Chairperson Mr Xola Nqola said that the committee recognised the delicate balance constitutional entities must maintain between retaining qualified legal and investigative staff and remaining financially sustainable under national fiscal constraints.
While acknowledging the solid financial management demonstrated by these entities – including clean financial opinions – the committee urged accounting officers to implement strict efficiency measures, optimise organisational structures and prioritise core service delivery to ensure constitutional mandates are fully realised, despite tight CoE ceilings. “At the same time, we will be having engagements with our sister committee of Appropriations in order to further highlight the critical budget shortages,” Mr Nqola said.
The committee heard that the SAHRC achieved an overall performance of 82% for the 2025/26 financial year compared to 85% in 2024/25. This is mostly due to the institution receiving an unqualified audit with findings again and not being able to reduce the audit finding from the previous financial year.
The committee was told that the target was an unqualified audit opinion with a 50% reduction in audit findings. The actual performance was an unqualified audit opinion with a 31.25% reduction in audit findings leading to a 18.75% deviation due to a lack of reduction in findings related to compliance with key legislation and the audit of pre-determined objectives. Furthermore, the ICT ERP System target was not met. The SAHRC set a target to implement three modules but had not managed to implement any, due to delays in SCM procurement processes.
“The committee has noted the severe funding constraints, of especially Legal Aid SA, and notes the important mandate it performs. We further appreciate the fact that despite this, the institutional still performs exceptionally well and managed to utilise its budget effectively and fully. The worst thing that can happen is to ask money from National Treasury for an organisation that has already underspent in previous years,” said Mr Nqola.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON JUSTICE AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT, MR XOLA NQOLA.
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