Introduced in 2000, the act – known as Paia – governs the public’s right to access information held by public or private bodies. It is intended to promote freedom of access to information in South Africa.
Political parties have not always been subject to the stipulations of Paia. In 2017, My Vote Counts, an non-governmental organisation that campaigns for greater political party transparency, approached the Western Cape high court, arguing that Paia is unconstitutional because it did not provide for political parties and independent candidates to disclose their private funding.
But the Information Regulator’s Paia compliance assessments were not limited to political parties: 27 private companies, 13 universities and a total of 54 national and provincial government departments were all assessed for compliance with the legislation – all with varying results.All national government departments – with the exception of the State Security Agency, which is exempt – were found to have compiled Paia manuals . But none of these manuals was compliant with the legislation.
“From where we are sitting, the private sector seems to be more eager to comply than the public sector,” said Tlakula.
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