2. The proposed budget cuts will reduce Legal Aid South Africa's baseline allocation by R84.5 million over the medium term. Although a key stakeholder in the criminal justice system, Legal Aid South Africa's budget is considerably smaller than that of the NPA and feels budget cuts disproportionately. Further, the majority of its allocation is committed to salaries, which leaves it with very little room to cut costs without reducing posts. Legal Aid South Africa reports that it is able to absorb the R13 million reduction of its 2013/14 budget without it having any impact on court coverage in the next financial year but that - worryingly - there is no provision for additional capacity for new courts. Further, from 2014/15 onwards, the budget cuts will directly impact on court coverage (court coverage will be reduced by 23 posts in 2014/15 and 60 posts in 2015/16). In addition, the Judicare budget will be reduced by 6% for both 2014/15 and 2015/16. The current coverage of courts is already inadequate and the reductions will exacerbate this. The Committee is extremely concerned about the impact of the reductions on the efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal justice system as a whole.