Public Protector disappoints

Mr. Thapelo Mothibi of Legal Aid Bloemfontein went to see a prisoner (convicted on false charges) at Grootvlei Prison on 2015/10/17, gave him paperwork to fill in and then subsequently disappeared. The prisoner in question lodged numerous requests for feedback, not receiving a single answer in nearly 3 years. I myself contacted the Law Society of the Free State in November 2017 to aid said prisoner, we were supp**** with Pro Bono Application forms which he filled in and we submitted back to the Law Society. They then sent an e-mail in January 2018 stating that, once again, the paperwork had been submitted to Legal Aid. To date we have not had any feedback.

I called Legal aid myself, was given the name of the Paralegal working at Grootvlei, spoke to her this morning, only to be advised that Mr. Mothibi is the one that handles the appeals. Now I am concerned, he hasn't done anything in 3 years, will things be different this time around? I am open to disclosing the prisoner's details to a representative upon request.

Upon reaching a point of severe frustration at not getting any aid, the prisoner then wrote to the office of the public protector. They responded that ADV T. Mokoena had been assigned to his case, and he was given reference REF: 7/2 - 017794/16/FS - note that this is for 2016. This is the entirety of the interaction from the public protector side. The Advocate never pitched, has never contacted the prisoner and there has been no follow up or response to any of the prisoner's letters.

For an organisation that calls itself the Public Protector, they sure do not live up to the name.