
The promotion of access to information act gives citizens the right to access information.
According to South African government website, ‘the motivation for giving effect to the right of access to information is to foster a culture of transparency and accountability in both public and private bodies and to promote a society in which the people of South Africa have effective access to information to enable them to fully exercise and protect all their rights’. The promotion of access to information act gives you the right to access the following information from the relevant department.
- Personal records held by a government department or a public body.
- Third party information or records: only with permission from the relevant third party, especially if the documents contain confidential or private information.
- Information to which access is not restricted by the Promotion of Access to Information Act
- The records of Cabinet and its committees.
- Records that relate to the judicial function of a court.
- Information that is:
- Obtained by a special tribunal that was established in terms of the law.
- Held by a judicial officer of such a court or tribunal.
- Held by an individual member of parliament or of a provincial legislature.
If you need to access any information of this nature you can contact the deputy information officer or information officer of the relevant department or public body. You will need to follow the required procedure of filling in the relevant forms and paying fees where applicable.
For more information on the access to information act, visit :
https://www.gov.za/services/information-government/access-information