Legal Aid South Africa reviews and complaints

The following email was sent March 25 at 11:15 to communications2@legal-aid.co.za with the hope that it would be forwarded to the Head of Department.
The address was found on their website.

Dear Sir/Madam

Would appreciate your assistance in the following matter as I have no idea to whom I can address my problem.

On December 28, 2017 I was involved in a motor vehicle accident caused by a person who ran a red light.
The case was reported to the Tableview Cape Town police station and names of witnesses was included in mr affidavit.

On January 8, 2018 I approached the Bellville Legal Aid and they accepted my case.

From February 12, 2018 my case has been handled by various attorneys and only one has returned aby of my calls regarding feedback as to where my case was going.

On February 17, 2020 Attorney Diederichs (Ms) phoned me to inform me that the case was going to court and that the office will phone me to tell me what has transpired.
I am still waiting for this call

March 17, 2020 I phoned a lady, Ms Amanda who told me that new staff would be taking over and that an Attorney Xaba (Mr) would contact me.
He did phone and my wife and answered the call.
He asked her if we were satisfied with the quotation which was R29, 697.27. and my wife said yes.

On monday July 6, 2020 Attorney Xaba phoned and he and I discussed the repairs to my car and I asked him if I brought in a new quotation if this would speed up matters.
He suggested I bring in the quotation.

Wednesday July 8, 2020 I took the new quotation to his office and a a very brief talk with him.
I asked him if I could have a copy of the quotation but was told that the office machine was broken.
I walked around looking for a place to make a copy, found one and took the quotation back to him.
I needed some more information from him but he told me that he could not help as he was going to a meeting.
Before I left he suggested that I not write to hellopeter.com in the future.

Have tried there "please call me" number, [protected] and [protected] but not much help as there never seems to be anyone at their desks.
Should my "final" call for help be to the Minister of Justice, Mr Ronald Lamola?

Hoping that I will get a response and that this case/matter will be finilised so that my car can be repaired asap as the amount being claimed could be insufficient to repair the car and what and who do I turn to?

Since the last contact with the Attorney from Legal Aid, Bellville office on monday July 6 no further response received regarding my case three five zero one /one eight.

Handed a new quotation to the Attorney on July 8 for the repairs to my car.
They could not make a copy of the quote because their copy machine was broken.
I went looking for a office to make a copy and found one.
This cost me R10.00.
I took it back to the Legal Aid office and handed it to the Attorney.
I needed to ask him some questions but was informed that he had to go to a meeting and could not help.

Can understand that because of the lockdown that court cases have been put on hold but surely after 2 years and 9 months this case should have been settled by now or will this case drag on for longer and will "justice" be done and the person who broke the law by running a red light get away with it?

All relevant documents, witness telephone numbers and names were handed in on January 12, 2018 plus the original quotation but now a new quotation eas required, why?

On March 17, 2020 at 08:15 my wife spoke to a lady named Amanda who informed her that new staff would be taking over and that the new Attorney would phone us, this never happened.

Please Legal Aid, I am 82 years old, live in an old age home and need to have my car repaired and cannot afford to pay additional monies in if the repair shops prices go up and new quotations are required again.

The original quote was R29, 697.27 and because of all the delays I went to a new panel beater and the new quote of R24, 104.78 was hande to the Attorney.

Why should I suffer and the criminal who broke the law is not punished?

Their "please call me"line, zero seven nine eight three five seven one seven nine, is either not being manned or something else is wrong?
My car was damaged by a criminal who ran a red light and after providing all the required information to the Legal Aid office in Bellville plus the names and telephone numbers of witnesses, there has been no further feedback from SA legal aid
My problem with this whole case is what happens if my quote to repair my car is no more valid, will I have recourse to Small claims court and will Legal Aid still represent me as this is no fault of mine with all these delays?