The National Council MP and Independent Candidate, Paulus Mbangu, says there is a need for more legal practitioners to ensure equal access to justice and speed up cases.

He was contributing to the report of the Standing Committee on Home Affairs, security, constitutional, and legal affairs presented by Swapo MP John Likando.

Mbangu said that access to justice should not be for those who have financial means.

"You have a Grade 10 dropout who appears before the judge, and the judge has a Master's Degree in Law, and the prosecutor has a LLB, and here is a poor person who dropped out of Grade 10, and he is defending himself, so there is no equality there at all because a poor person does not have money to hire a lawyer, or maybe because of the legal aid sometimes it takes too long to appoint a lawyer."

He also appealed to the judiciary to ensure that cases brought before the court are resolved with speed and without delay.

"The judiciary officers should take over and take the responsibility to drive a case to a resolution. The judiciary officers should be able to set and enforce time limits specific to the case to ensure that there are no unnecessary delays. Judges should never be silent empires."

Also contributing to the report was LPM MP Harald Kambrude.

"The Legal Assistance Centre talks about the effects of the long-awaited retabling of the High Court amendment bill of 2021 and Magistrate's Court. I think it's on our menu now, but why must we have these kinds of things long overdue? The Legal Assistance Centre expressed the urgency of the two bills to be reintroduced in parliament and passed without delay."