Hon House Chairperson, educated people do not repeat what they have already said. The question of access to justice in general and legal representation in particular remains equally important in our country. Section 34 of the Constitution addresses access to justice in general, but section 35 addresses legal representation of accused persons in particular. Up till now legal representation took precedence over the representation of persons in civil matters. That has created a perception amongst the people that the Constitution and the law favour the criminals over the victims.
This is a matter that needs to be addressed with speed, because the extent to which a legal system is legitimate depends on popular perception as well. For legal systems to remain legitimate, they have to speak to the popular sense of justice. It is for that reason that we think the proposal of the Justice committee to the effect that we should not neglect the public interest law is important. In a country like ours, which requires radical socioeconomic transformation, but this will take some time because of the legacy of apartheid, we need to address the social ills arising from these degrading and dehumanising social conditions which lead to petty crimes, that unfortunately end up in the normal courts because there are no other forums to deal with them.
You therefore find that we have many young people from these degrading human settlements ending up in prison for things that actually could be resolved through community structures. So, I think that the justice committee made a pointed observation and came up with a very important proposal that I hope this august House will support.
We can also recall that in the country now researchers are saying only 46% of the population understand the Constitution, which means that constitutional literacy in our country is very important. We are therefore delighted that the new Bill also emphasises legal education and the information to address that. But we also need to learn from history, because in this country even the noisemakers on my left are aware that we focus more on Roman-Dutch law and English common law at the expense of indigenous African law, which results in the use of foreign systems to address indigenous legal questions, which in turn amounts the majority of the people being denied justice.
I think we should follow the example of Mozambique and Zimbabwe that, after liberation, took into account the popular sense of justice and came up with appropriate legislation, like that introducing primary courts in Zimbabwe. In South Africa that process was hijacked, because our people had began to develop people's courts or community courts, but they were infiltrated by the apartheid system and delegitimised. Kobie Coetzee took advantage of the vacuum and introduced alternative dispute resolution mechanisms from Canada. So, I think the right of our people to self-determination also includes the right to evolve their own common law that has the same status as the English and Roman-Dutch law. After all, the Romans have disappeared from the face of the earth and why should we then be guided by the sense of justice of people that are no more.
Lastly, hon House Chairperson ... [Interjections.] ... the new law also allows Legal Aid to support people who have lodged land claims. I think that is very important because the Oxfam report shows that our people are hungry, not because they cannot produce food, not because they cannot help themselves, but because we need to speed up the land claims. [Interjections.] This law, made by the ANC, is going to address that. It is not true that the ANC is not addressing the issue. [Interjections.]