Description

The purpose of the Promotion of Access to Information Act is to ensure that people can exercise their constitutional right of access to any information held by:

• the state
• another person that is required for the exercise or protection of any right.

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 so as to enable them to fully exercise and protect all their rights.

To what information, held by government departments or any public body, can access be obtained?

• You may request access to all documentation and records held by any government department, its officials or any other public body. It does not matter when that information came into existence. These include the following:
  • personal records held by the 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:
    • 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.

• The Promotion of Access to Information Act should not be used:
  • when the record is requested to be used in criminal or civil proceedings 
  • a criminal or civil proceeding has already commenced.

However, the Access to Information Act is above any other act or legislation that may prohibit you or restrict you from having access to any information.

Steps to follow

• Ask the Deputy Information Officer of the relevant government department to help you access the information or the documents you need.
• Complete and submit Form A: Regulation 6: Request for access to record of public body. You can either obtain it from the office of the Department or download it below.
• If the information that you seek is not freely available, you will have to pay a request fee (in the form of revenue stamps). You may also have to pay an access and a search fee (see schedule of fees below).
• When requesting information from a public body, you have no obligation to state the reason you wish to exercise or protect your right.

Legal framework

(Documents are provided in PDF format. To open PDF documents, you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader 4 or higher installed on your computer.)

The Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (Act 2 of 2000) and related Regulations.

Service standard

• The Deputy Information Officer must respond within 30 days of receiving your request.
• If the Information Officer or Deputy Information Officer denies you permission to access the information you requested, you may lodge an appeal with the the relevant Minister of the department or public body concerned.
• If you are still dissatisfied with the outcome, you may take the matter to court.
• The Information Officer or Deputy Information Officer will help you with this process.
• If the information you requested is not held by the relevant department, but by any other public body, the Deputy Information Officer will transfer your request to the Information Officer of the relevant public body within 14 days.
• The relevant public body must respond to your request within the 30 days as prescribed. You will be notified of the transfer of your request to the relevant public body.

Cost

The reproduction fees are as follows:

a.	For every photocopy of an A4 page or part thereof	R0,60
b.	For every printed copy of an A4 page or part thereof, held on computer or in electronic or machine-readable format	R0,40
c.	For a copy in computer-readable format on (i) stiffy (ii) compact disc	R5 R40
d.	(i) For a transcription of visual images on an A4 page or part thereof (ii) For a copy of visual images	R22 R60
e.	(i) For a transcription of an audio record, per A4 page or part thereof (ii) For a copy of an audio record	R12 R17
	Request fee payable by every requester other than a personal requester	R35

The access fees payable by a requester who is not exempted from payment are as follows:

a.	For every photocopy of an A4 page or part thereof	R0,60
b.	For every printed copy of an A4 page or part thereof, held on computer or in electronic or machine-readable format (i) stiffy (ii) compact disc	R5 R40
c.	(i) For a transcription of visual images on an A4 page or part thereof (ii) For a copy of visual images	R22 R60
d.	(i) For a transcription of an audio record, per A4 page or part thereof (ii) For a copy of an audio record	R12 R17
e.	The fee for searching for the record is R15 per hour or part of an hour, excluding the first hour, reasonably required for such search

The actual postal fee is payable when a copy of a record must be posted to a requester.

The following applies:

• you have to pay a deposit after six hours have expired
• the deposit that is payable by the requester equals one third of the access fee.

Fees for records of a private body.

The reproduction fees are as follows:

a.	For every photocopy of an A4 page or part thereof	R1,10
b.	For every printed copy of an A4 page or part thereof, held on computer or in electronic or machine-readable format	R0,75
c.	For a copy in a computer-readable format on (i) stiffy (ii) compact disc	R7 R70
d.	(i) For a transcription of visual images on an A4 page or part thereof (ii) For a copy of visual images	R40 R60
e.	(i) For a transcription of an audio record, per A4 page or part thereof (ii) For a copy of an audio record	R20 R30
Request fee payable by every requester other than a personal requester		R50

The access fees payable by a requester who is not exempted from payment are as follows:

a.	For every photocopy of an A4 page or part thereof	R1,10
b.	For every printed copy of an A4 page or part thereof, held on computer or in electronic or machine-readable format ,	R0,75
c.	For a copy in a computer-readable format on (i) stiffy (ii) compact disc	R7,50 R70
d.	(i) For a transcription of visual images, per A4 page or part thereof (ii) For a copy of visual images	R40 R60
e.	(i) For a transcription of an audio record, per A4 page or part thereof (ii) For a copy of an audio record	R20 R30
f.	The fee for searching for the record is R30 per hour or part of an hour, reasonably required for such search

Forms to complete

(Forms are provided in PDF format. To open PDF documents, you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader 4 or higher installed on your computer.)

• Form A: Regulation 6: Request for access to record of public body
• Form B: Regulation 8: Notice of internal appeal
• Form C: Regulation 10: Request for access to record of private body
  

Contact details

If you need assistance or have further questions on how to access any information held in any department or by any public body, please contact the Deputy Information Officer or the Information Officer of the relevant department or public body.

Information Officers

• National government
• Provincial government
  
• Government bodies and institutions